Hide And Seek
by m. diddy
Summary: Lily Evans has always hated James Potter and he has always loved her. What can he do to make her finally see that he isn't such a cocky, arrogant jerk? This is my version of the Marauders' last few years at Hogwarts. Read and review! LJ ROC SOC
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this fiction.

A/N: Well, this is my first story so please review and leave constructive criticism. Tell me if you like it and how I can improve it. Thanks!

"Messing with your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fathead on it. You make me SICK!" With that, Lily Evans turned on her heel and stormed off towards the castle. Although Lily looked like a normal sixteen-year old girl with large, emerald green eyes and thick, shoulder-length dark red hair, she was about as far from normal as you could get. Lily was a witch, and she was finishing her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had spent the morning taking her second to last O.W.L., or Ordinary Wizardly Levels, which would determine the career she could have once she left Hogwarts. After she finished her exams, she had sat down at the side of the lake with a bunch of her friends when she noticed the Marauders torturing Severus Snape, a greasy-haired Slytherin, again. James Potter, the ringleader of the Marauders, had then asked her out in front of everybody.

Lily was fuming as she walked to her dorm. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, or the Marauders as they liked to be called, were the bane of her existence. James Potter had messy black hair and hazel eyes behind thin, silver glasses. He was probably the most popular guy at Hogwarts; he was in the top two of their year and he was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was probably also the most arrogant guy in school. He had been chasing after her since fourth year, asking her out everyday and then pranking her when she said no. Sirius Black had long, shaggy black hair that fell elegantly into his gray eyes. He was the best looking guy at school, and also the biggest player. He was popular, smart and a troublemaker, just like James. Peter Pettigrew was short and stocky with blonde hair and watery blue eyes. He wasn't as smart or attractive as the other Marauders but he was popular all the same. Remus Lupin had sandy brown hair, and blue eyes and he always looked kind of sickly. Remus was very sweet but he had a dark secret. Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf, had bitten him when he was younger and ever since, he underwent the painful transformation into a werewolf every month. James, Sirius and Peter had found out in second year and had become illegal animagi; risking a life sentence in Azkaban, the wizarding prison, so they could keep him company on the full moon.

Lily slammed the door to her dormitory and frowned as she sat down on her bed. No one could get her as angry as James Potter could. He was so arrogant, so conceited, and such a jerk. He acted like he owned the school and it really got on Lily's nerves. Her friends had a theory that the reason why Lily got so angry with James was because she cared about him. She had thrown a book at them when they had said that to her. She winced at the thought of that. She had gotten angry because they were right. Lily had been friends with James up until third year, which was when his ego started to get a little too big. He had started hexing random people, torturing the first years and Severus Snape. At that moment, Lily's three friends came into the room. Madison Hopkins and Emily Sullivan were laughing hysterically while Alice Smith simply looked amused.

"Lily," Madison said, clutching her sides, "That was the funniest thing I've ever seen. You should have seen the look on his face. '_What is it with her?_'" She started to laugh harder. Madison had long, blonde hair, dark blue eyes and was around 5'6". She was very popular and dated a lot of guys but always seemed to run away when things got serious. She was a muggleborn like Lily. She was an only child and her parents, who were incredibly rich, spoiled her immensely. Madison was very blunt about things, and that made a lot of people think she was a spoiled bitch, but Lily knew she could also be incredibly sweet. Madison was very observant and always gave great advice.

"It was great, Lily," Emily said, leaning against the doorframe. Her face was red from laughing so hard. "McGonnagal showed up right after you left and she was pissed. Her face got really pale and she screamed at him for a good ten minutes." Emily had long, curly brown hair and large, bluish-gray eyes. She was short, 5'3", and petite. Despite her appearance, Emily was tough. She was incredibly strong from being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she always stood up for what she believed was right, even if it meant getting into a fistfight. However, that year she had stopped being such a tomboy and started to become a little girlier. She was a halfbood; her mother, a muggle, had died when she was a little girl. Her father had raised her and her three older brothers by himself, so Lily could see why she had been such a tomboy.

"Yeah," Alice said, smirking. "He got into so much trouble." Alice Smith had short, dark brown hair, brown eyes and a warm, friendly face. Alice was very sweet and caring. She was nice to everyone; sometimes a little too nice, and very motherly towards those she cared about. However, she was not afraid to stand up for her friends or what she thought was right. She was always honest with her friends, but unlike Madison she was very sweet about it. She was also very intelligent and loyal.

"Good," Lily said darkly. "He deserves it. He's such an arrogant prick; I can't believe him. And Snape isn't much better. I really meant it when I said that I wasn't going to help him again. I mean, I was just trying to be nice and he calls me a mudblood!"

"He's always been like that," Emily said, absent-mindedly. She had gotten out her Transfiguration book and was sitting on her bed, reading it. "It never stopped you from standing up for that prat before."

"Well, I'm fed up with it," Lily snapped. She grabbed her Transfiguration book out of her bag and sighed as she sat back down on her bed. She was still angry about what happened with Potter and she was taking it out on her friends. "I'm sorry," she said, looking at the three girls. "It's just that Potter really gets under my skin."

"Uh-huh," Madison smirked as she walked over to the large mirror that she shared with the other girls in the dormitory and started brushing her hair. "He's able to get under your skin because you like him."

"I do not like James Potter!" Lily yelled angrily. "He is the most conceited, arrogant prick I've ever met in my life! There's no way in hell I would ever like James Potter!"

"Ok, ok," Alice said, looking up at Lily. "Calm down."

They sat in silence for a couple minutes. Alice and Emily were studying from their Transfiguration books while Madison put on make-up at the mirror. Finally Lily, who had been lying on her bed and thinking, broke the silence.

"Where are you going?" Lily said, eyeing Madison suspiciously.

"The library," she said loftily.

"With who?" Alice said, smirking. Madison pretended to look shocked. "Oh, don't act like you're not going with someone."

"I'm going with Nathan Davies, that sixth year Ravenclaw. He said he'd help me with my Transfiguration," Madison said, smiling.

Emily snorted. "Yeah, like you'll get any studying done."

Madison laughed and then pretended to look hurt. "What kind of girl do you think I am? Don't answer that," she said sternly when she saw Emily opening her mouth to say something. Emily smirked at her and went back to her Transfiguration notes. A few minutes later, she was done. She said goodbye to the girls and went to meet Nathan in the library.

Alice, Emily and Lily sat in silence, all three studying for their Transfiguration O.W.L. After an hour and a half, Alice got bored with studying. She closed her book, turned to Emily and said, "Won't you be seeing Fabian tonight?"

Emily had been dating Fabian Prewett, a seventh year Gryffindor, since Halloween. He was very good looking with light blonde hair and warm brown eyes, at the top of his year and he had been the Gryffindor Quidditch captain for two years now. "No, he has to study for his Defense Against The Dark Arts N.E.W.T. tomorrow." she said sadly, looking up at her friends. "I think I'm going to break up with him."

"What?" Lily said, looking incredulously at Emily. "But I thought you guys were perfect for each other."

Emily sighed. "I don't know. I really like him, but… I don't think I'll be able to do the long distance thing. We talked about it the other night and he doesn't think he can do it either."

Lily nodded and said, "Yeah. It would be tough. He'll be pretty busy next year, isn't he trying to join the Auror Academy?"

Emily smiled sadly and nodded. Alice sat down next to her and said, "Don't worry about it now, Emily. You should just enjoy the last week at Hogwarts here with him and not do anything until at least the train ride home."

Emily smiled. "You're right, Alice." She looked at the clock and jumped up. "Oh crap, I told Remus I'd meet him in the library." She started to shove her notes into her bag. "Do you guys want to come with me?"

"Sure," Alice said, grabbing her Transfiguration book.

"Will the other Marauders be there?" Lily asked. She did not want to see James Potter again that day.

"How am I supposed to know that?" Emily said, smirking.

"Oh, you have to come, Lily!" Alice pleaded with her. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

"What's the worst – This is Potter we're talking about, Alice! Think about what you're saying!" Lily said, looking at her friend in shock.

"He's not that bad!" Emily said from the door. Her father had been a close friend with James's father when they had gone to Hogwarts together and they were still very close. In fact, Emily lived on the same street as the Potters. She had been good friends with James since they were little kids and usually stuck up for him when Lily was being unreasonable. She crossed her arms and stared at Lily, "Honestly, you're acting like a five year old."

"I am not!" She sat down on her bed and crossed her arms. Emily gave her a look and Lily laughed. "Ok I am. So what?"

"Lily…" Alice said, exasperated. "Honestly, if he does anything you can just leave."

Lily looked at her two friends and knew she wasn't going to win this argument. "Fine, I'll come," she said, sighing. "But the second Potter tries anything, I'm leaving."

-----

James slammed the door to the boys' dormitory and flung himself on his bed. Professor McGonnagal had taken him to Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster's, office where he was not only given a week and a half of detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest, starting that night, but had lost fifty points for Gryffindor in the House Cup.

Sirius opened the door a second later and said, "Thanks for slamming the door in my face, Prongs."

James didn't say anything. Instead, he glared up at the ceiling. "Prongs, why are you so angry?" Remus said, sitting down on his bed. "It's not like you haven't gotten in worse trouble."

"It's not that," James said quietly. "It's Evans."

Sirius groaned. "Come on, James. I think it's time you got over that."

"That's the thing, Padfoot," he said, sighing. "I tried but I just can't get over her. And I don't understand why she doesn't like me. I mean, I'm _James Potter._"

"I think that might be why," Remus smirked at his friend. "You heard her. She doesn't like you because you're arrogant, you play pranks all the time, you hex the first and second years for getting in your way, and you're a prick to the Slytherins, especially Snape."

"So," James said, sitting up, "What can I do to make her like me?"

"Stop doing those things?" Remus said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Sirius said, acting as if Remus had just suggested that they go jump off the Astronomy Tower. He turned to James and said, "Don't listen to him, Prongs. Lily is just playing hard to get. You saw that she was trying her hardest not to smile when you flipped Snape in the air."

James scowled at Sirius but didn't say anything. He had noticed the corners of her mouth twitching, as if she thought it were funny. But then why would she yell at him for doing something that she found amusing? James didn't think he would ever understand girls. The Marauders sat in silence for a little while. Remus and Peter were studying from their Transfiguration books while Sirius read a Quidditch magazine and James was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

Finally, Remus got up and started to put his notes into his bag. "I'm going to the library to study with Emily. Do you guys want to come?"

"Yeah," Peter said eagerly. "Do you think you can help me with these vanishing spells?"

"Yeah," Remus said. He and Peter walked over to the door. "Are you guys going to come?

"No," James muttered. "I don't think I could face Evans right now."

Sirius sighed, not wanting to be around while James sulked over Evans. "I guess so." He got up, shoved his magazine in his bag and followed Remus and Peter down the stairs. When he caught up with them halfway across the common room, he said, "Man, he has got it bad." Remus nodded sadly. "I think we should get back at Lily for this."

"Not a good idea," Remus said as Peter agreed with Sirius. They stopped walking and looked at Remus as if he had just suggested canceling Christmas that year. "She'll think Prongs was in on it, hate him even more and then he'll sulk around even more."

"Yeah, that's a bad idea," Peter said quickly. Although the boys felt bad for James, they were getting annoyed with his constant talking about and sulking over Lily Evans. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Peter said seriously, "Do you think she'll ever go out with him?"

Sirius laughed derisively. "Well Wormtail, let's just say there's a better chance of a monkey flying out of my butt than Lily dating Prongs."

Remus laughed. "I don't know. Maybe if he just deflated his head a little…"

"Like that would ever happen," Peter sniggered as they walked into the door of the library. Remus scanned the tables for Emily and frowned when he saw Madison with a sixth year Ravenclaw. The truth was that he had had liked Madison since third year. She had always been so sweet to Remus, and she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen but he knew that nothing could ever happen between them. He tried not to let it get to him but he always got incredibly jealous whenever he saw her with some other guy. He hadn't told anyone that he felt that way, but he was pretty sure that the Marauders knew.

"Oh no," Sirius said, pulling Remus out of his thoughts of the blonde-haired girl. He pointed over to where he had spotted Emily sitting with Alice and Lily. "Why did Sullivan have to bring her?"

"They are best friends," Remus said, smirking. This should be interesting, he thought.

The three Marauders walked over to the three girls and sat down. "Hey," Alice said, smiling at them.

"Ladies, Sullivan" Sirius smirked, nodding his head at the girls.

Emily laughed sarcastically and said, "Wow Sirius, I'm surprised you even knew what a library was."

Sirius pretended to laugh and said, "Merlin, that was a bad comeback, even for you."

Emily opened her mouth to say something when Lily stopped her. "Will you two knock it off? You're going to get us kicked out," Lily said, looking amused. Emily and Sirius had hated each other when they first met, and they had spent the first half of first year at each other's throats. They had called a truce finally at Christmas that year, but they still fought a lot, although it seemed to be little friendlier. Emily glared at Sirius and then turned back to her notes.

"Where's James?" Alice asked Peter, who was sitting across from her.

"Probably off torturing some more Slytherins," Lily muttered darkly.

Sirius turned and glared at her. "Actually, Evans," he said coldly, "James is in our dormitory, sulking over what you said to him."

"It's not my fault if he can't handle the truth," Lily muttered. She had her eyes fixed on her notes, refusing to look up at the Marauders. She really didn't like hurting James's feelings, but what she said had been the truth.

"You know, I don't understand why you have to be such a – OW!" Sirius exclaimed. Madam Pince shushed him and he rolled his eyes at her. He turned to Emily, who was sitting directly across from him, and said, "What was that for?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she whispered, although it sounded like she was anything but sorry. "I didn't realize your shin was there!"

Sirius glared at her but kept quiet. He pulled his Quidditch magazine out of his bag and started to read in silence. He could feel Lily glaring at him and after a few minutes he couldn't stand it anymore. "What?"

"You're not even going to study?" she asked disbelievingly.

"No," he scoffed. "I don't need to." She gave him a disgusted look and went back to studying.

Then Emily started to shuffle frantically through her notes. In a panicked voice she said, "Have any of you seen my notes on Vanishing Spells?"

"No…" Alice and Lily said in unison.

"I can't find them," she said, still sounding panicked.

Lily smirked and clucked her tongue at her. "I guess you can borrow mine, but you should keep track of your notes next time."

"Evans, must you nag everyone at the table?" Sirius asked. He yelped in pain and was shushed by a very angry Madam Pince. "Will you quit doing that?" he said to Emily, who was glaring at him.

Lily glared at Sirius. She slammed her Vanishing Spell notes down in front of Emily and said, "Here. I'll be in the common room." With that, she grabbed her stuff and stormed out of the library.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Emily hissed at Sirius.

"She was getting on my nerves," he said, flashing his trademark lop-sided grin at her. This usually got him out of a lot of trouble with girls, but Emily just rolled her eyes at him. He turned back to his Quidditch magazine and after a few minutes, started to laugh. "Sullivan," he whispered, "you've got to read this article by that new nutter keeper for the Harpies."

"Catherine Higgs?" Emily whispered. "She's a genius!"

"What!" Sirius said, looking at her in shock. "You can't tell me you believe this rubbish about mentally blocking the quaffle."

She shrugged, "It makes sense. Well, to me anyways."

He looked at her in shock. "I always knew you were insane, Sullivan." She rolled her eyes at him again. "You know, if you keep doing that, they'll roll right out of your head someday."

"Honestly, Black," Emily said, sounding annoyed, "That's the stupidest thing I've heard all-"

At that moment, Madam Pince came up behind her and said, "If you two can't keep quiet, you will have to leave! Now get out!" Then she hurried off to scold some fifth year Hufflepuffs.

Emily gave the librarian a dirty look as she started to gather up her stuff. She noticed Sirius smirking at her and said, "You know what, Sirius? Since you got us kicked out, you can help me with my vanishing spells!" Sirius groaned as she grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him out of the library.

"They're so blind," Alice muttered. She turned to Remus and noticed that he had not heard what she had said. He was too busy shooting dirty looks at Madison and Nathan Davies, who had just been thrown out of the library for snogging.

"To what?" Peter asked, looking confused.

Remus snapped out of his trance and said, "What?"

"Looks like they're not the only ones," Alice whispered with a smile on her face. The two boys looked at her in confusion.

-----

Later that night, Lily and Alice were sitting in the common room, studying for their Transfiguration O.W.L. like all the other fifth years. Except for the Marauders, minus Sirius, who were sitting in the corner, hunched over what looked like an old piece of parchment, whispering frantically.

"I bet they're planning their stupid end of the year prank," Lily whispered, watching the Marauders with a disapproving look on her face.

"Mm," Alice said, not paying attention to her. She was too absorbed in her notes.

"I can't believe Remus is still playing pranks after Dumbledore made him a prefect! I mean, does he have no sense of responsibility? I should go over there and remind him of his duties as a prefect!" Lily continued on her rant. She noticed Alice wasn't paying attention to her and said, "And then after I do that, I'll declare my undying love to Potter and start making out with him right here in the common room."

"You do that," Alice said absent-mindedly while flipping through one of her spellbooks.

Unfortunately, Lily hadn't noticed Madison coming up behind her before she said that. "Declare your undying love for whom!" she exclaimed, looking at Lily in bewilderment. James Potter looked up so fast that he was sure he had whiplash, and watched the two girls in interest. Madison was shushed by several frazzled seventh years.

"Be quiet, Maddy!" Lily whispered as she pulled Madison down into a seat next to her. "I was just trying to get Alice to pay attention!"

Alice smirked at her and then turned to Madison, "She was going on one of her 'I hate the Marauders' rants."

"Oh. I wouldn't have been paying attention either," Madison smirked. She looked around the common room and said, "Where's Emily?"

Alice shrugged. "We haven't seen her since she left the library with Black."

Madison smiled and rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"So how were things with Nathan?" Lily asked, wiggling her eyebrows at her friend.

Madison smiled, "Oh, you know." She looked around the room as Alice and Lily rolled their eyes at her. "Alice, Longbottom's staring at you again."

"I know," Alice said, blushing slightly. She suddenly became very interested in her notes again.

"Oh no, Smith," Madison whispered, smiling. She grabbed Alice's notes away from her.

Lily was trying hard not to laugh. "You like him, don't you?"

"Shh," Alice said, looking around. "Someone will hear." She grabbed for her notes but Madison was too quick for her.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Madison asked, smirking.

Alice got her notes back on her second try. "It just happened," she said, smiling. Madison and Lily both turned to look at Frank Longbottom. He was a sixth year and had shaggy, dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. The girls knew Frank because he was Emily's older brother, Matthew Sullivan's best friend. They were so different that it shocked most people when they found out that they were best friends. While Matt was a troublemaker who played on the house Quidditch team, Frank was a rule-abiding prefect that was at the top of his year. Frank, who had been staring at Alice, noticed the two girls looking at him. He blushed slightly and turned to pay attention to whatever Matt was saying to him.

"I think he likes you," Lily whispered. Alice blushed again but didn't say anything.

"I bet we could find out from Matt!" Madison whispered, coming up with a plan. "If anyone would know, it would be him."

"No!" Alice said, wide-eyed. "You can not tell Matt! Or Emily, for that matter," She added as an afterthought. She knew Emily couldn't keep a secret from her brother.

"Tell Emily what?" Emily said from behind Alice. She had snuck up on her friends after getting back to the common room with Sirius.

Alice jumped and then shot a dirty look at Madison and Lily, who were both giggling. "Nothing," she muttered.

Emily laughed and sat down next to Lily. "I'll find out, Smith," she said, smiling at her.

"Why are you in such a good mood? Have a nice snog with Black?" Madison smirked. She rolled her eyes as Emily made retching sounds and then was promptly shushed by five of the seventh year girls who were sitting at the table next to them. "You're so immature," she whispered.

"You know," Alice said, smirking at Emily, "I have this theory that-"

"No one wants to hear about your crackpot theories, Smith," Emily said, interrupting. She started looking around the room and said, "Have any of you seen Fabian?" Alice and Madison shook their heads.

"So now they're crackpot theories?" Lily whispered. "So the one about Potter and I-"

"No," Emily interrupted. "Alice, Frank's staring at you."

"I know," Alice muttered, blushing.

"Oh," Emily said in comprehension. She smirked, "That's what you didn't want me to know." Alice blushed even more and looked down at her notes again. "I wonder if Matt knows-"

"No!" Alice exclaimed, looking at Emily. Lily and Madison snickered at this. "You can't say anything to him!"

"Alright, alright," Emily said, laughing. She rolled her eyes as she was shushed again. "I'm going up to our dormitory."

Madison got up from her chair and yawned. "I think I am too."

Once the two girls were gone, Alice whispered to Lily, "Potter's staring at you."

It was true. James had been staring at her for the past 10 minutes. Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Like I care." She looked over at Frank Longbottom and smirked. "Longbottom is still staring at you."

Alice blushed a very deep shade of red and pretended to have not heard her.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing in this story. 

**A/N: **Remember to review! This is my first story and any constructive criticism is welcome. Plus, reviews make me write faster. ) Thank you to Prongs007, hpandfriendsruletheworld and Wildfire J for reviewing the first chapter!

**Chapter Two**

"I wonder who Evans was declaring her undying for," James said, staring off into space. It had been a week since he heard Madison yell that in the common room and no matter how many times he pestered Emily, she still claimed she didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

"Prongs, will you get over that already?" Sirius said, sitting down. James had been going on about that for days now and although Sirius had no idea who Lily was declaring her love for, he was one hundred percent sure that it wasn't James. They were sitting in the almost empty common room very early in the morning. The only other people in the room were two seventh years, Fabian Prewett and Michael Chicoine, deep in conversation in a corner of the room. It was their last day at Hogwarts and the Marauders were not going to break the tradition of playing non-stop pranks on whoever was unfortunate enough to cross their paths.

"Yea, it's all that you've talked about for the past week," Peter said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Sorry," James muttered darkly. He didn't mean to annoy his friends. He knew he needed to stop talking about Lily but it was like some kind of word vomit, once it started to come up he just couldn't stop it. "So how long do you think it will take for them to notice?"

"An hour, two at the most," Remus said, smirking. They had made all the girls hair different, bright neon colors. It was childish, of course, and very immature but ingenious all the same. You see, you can't change the color of someone's hair without being in the same room as them and whenever a boy tried to get up to the girls dormitories, the stairs would turn into a slide. No one knew how the Marauders were able to get up to the girls dormitories, but they had been able to do it since fourth year.

"Anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap while we wait?" Peter asked, smirking.

After an hour and a few games of Exploding Snap, where Peter lost both of his eyebrows, they heard a loud scream from the girls' dormitories, which was quickly followed by two other high-pitched screams. "Wonder who that was," Sirius said, watching the stairs to the girls dormitories with a smirk on his face.

-------

Lily wasn't surprised when she woke up to see that she was the only one in her dormitory that was up. She looked over at her clock and groaned when she saw that it was only 7:30. She rolled over and tried to fall back asleep, but after a few minutes she realized she wouldn't be able to. She got up and went to the bathroom that all six girls in the dormitory shared and started to brush her teeth. She had to do a double take when she finally looked up and saw herself in the mirror. Her hair was bright, neon orange. Her toothbrush clattered in the sink as her mouth hung open in shock. Then she screamed as loud as she could.

There were a few thumps coming from the girl's room and suddenly the other five girls, Emily, Alice, Madison, Samantha Thompson and Gwenog Jones, were in the doorway to the bathroom with their wands drawn. When they noticed Lily's hair, they stared at her in silence; their mouths hung open in shock.

After the shock started to wear off, the five girls started to giggle. "Nice hair, Evans," Emily smirked.

"Oh I wouldn't laugh," Lily said crossly. "Why don't you look in the mirror?"

Emily's eyes widened and she ran over to the mirror. She gasped when she saw her reflection; her hair was lime green. The other four girls went to the mirror as well, Samantha and Alice both screamed when they saw their reflections while Madison was grabbing at her hair in shock and Gwenog laughed. "We look like idiots," Gwenog said. It was true, Alice and Samantha both had hot pink hair, while Gwenog's was a fire engine red and Madison's was bright, neon yellow.

"Oh, he is dead," Lily said angrily. "I am going to kill him." She stormed out of the bathroom, grabbed her bathrobe and stormed out of the room. The other girls didn't even have to ask who he was; they all knew she was talking about James Potter.

"I have to see this," Emily said, and her and Madison ran after Lily without bothering to put anything over the short shorts and tank tops they wore to bed. Alice, Samantha and Gwenog quickly threw their robes on and followed the other girls down the stairs.

"Potter!" Lily screamed, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, hello Lily!" James said in a cheery voice as he stood up. Lily walked over to him, scowling, and the rest of the Marauders stood up behind James, starting to snicker. James smirked and said, "Hmm, you look different today. Did you do something with your hair?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Potter," Lily growled at him, her green eyes flashing with anger. "Change it back."

At that moment, a green-haired Emily and a yellow-haired Madison appeared at the bottom of the stairs in what you could barely call pajamas. Sirius stopped laughing and stood, rooted to the spot, staring at the two girls. Madison looked good, like she always did. She always managed to look gorgeous, even when she had just rolled out of bed. But it was Emily that had shocked him. Most of the time, he always thought of her as one of the guys but now he couldn't help noticing that she was, in fact, a girl. Remus noticed him blatantly gawking at the two girls and elbowed him in the side.

"Actually, I don't think I will," James smirked at Lily. He knew that what he was doing was stupid, but he couldn't help himself. He loved pushing Lily's buttons and he loved it when she was angry with him.

"Potter, change it back now or I will hex you into next month," Lily said through gritted teeth as the other three girls hurried into the common room.

"Did I miss anything?" Alice whispered to Madison.

"Oh no, they're just getting started," Madison whispered back with a smirk on her face.

"I'll change it back if you go out with me," James said, grinning.

Lily rolled her eyes at him and sighed in frustration. "I'd rather date a troll than you, James Potter!" She raised her wand now and said evenly, "Now. Change. It. Back."

James raised his wand as well. "Evans, don't make me hex you," he said, sighing as if he was bored. "Come on.. Go out with me and I'll change everyone's hair back." By this time, most of Gryffindor tower were standing on the stairs to their dormitories, watching the fight between Lily and James. It was quite a sight, actually, to see the rainbow that the girls' hair formed on the stairs.

"No! I don't want to date you, James Potter! Why can't you get that through your thick skull?"

"We both know you really do, Lily. Will you please quit playing hard to get and just go out with me?"

Then Lily walked up to James and slapped him. "I said no, Potter! My answer has always been no and will always be no!" She turned on her heel and ran up the stairs. They heard the loud slamming of a door a few seconds later. Alice glared at James and then ran after Lily.

James touched the cheek where a bright red hand was appearing. "I saw that happening a lot differently in my mind."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter while everyone else in the common room tried to stifle his or her giggles. Emily walked over to James and looked at where Lily had slapped him. "Look!" she smirked, pointing at the handprint on his face. "You can see her hand so clearly!"

James frowned as the common room started to empty out. "That's not really cheering me up, Sullivan."

"I'm not trying to cheer you up, Potter," Emily snapped. "You are so dense! Did you honestly think changing the color of her hair would make her want to date you?"

"Well.." James said but Sirius chimed in said, "Of course he did!"

Emily shook her hand and muttered, "Boys."

"You better tell me how to change it back, Potter," Madison said, scowling, "or she'll probably come back down here and give you a matching handprint on your other cheek."

James looked like he was thinking very hard while Sirius started to laugh, "Definitely not, Hopkins, your hair will be staying like that until –"

"Do you want me to break your nose again, Black?" Emily said crossly, glaring at Sirius and he stopped talking immediately. Remus and Peter smirked, remembering the time in fourth year when Sirius had called Emily a boy and she punched him so hard in the nose that she had broken it.

Madison groaned in anger. "I won't ruin your stupid prank. I'll only change her, and our, hair back."

"I don't know," Emily grinned. "I think I might keep mine this way."

"You better not," Fabian Prewett laughed, coming up behind her. Emily turned around and kissed him quickly on the lips. Sirius was too busy glaring at them to notice James whisper something in Madison's ear.

"Thanks, James," Madison said sweetly, and she ran up the stairs with Emily following her shortly after.

Once the Marauders were alone, they walked over to a few stuffy armchairs next to the fireplace and sat down. "I hope Hopkins doesn't tell anyone what the counter-curse is," James said anxiously.

"What!" Sirius exclaimed, looking shocked. "You told her?"

"Where have you been, Padfoot? He told her five minutes ago," Remus smirked.

"I was distracted," Sirius muttered, scowling.

"By what?" Peter asked, perplexed.

"Come on, Wormtail!" Sirius grinned. "Did you happen to notice what Hopkins was wearing?"

"No," Peter said, looking confused.

"You're so daft, Wormtail," Sirius said, shaking his head. "I think I might give her another chance and ask her out again." Remus picked a pillow up off the couch that was next to the chair he was sitting in and chucked it at Sirius' head. "Hey!" Sirius said as it hit him right in the face. "What was that for?"

"He likes her," Peter said, smirking. "Honestly, Padfoot, and you call me daft. Besides, didn't she dump you?"

"You like Hopkins?" James said, finally being shaken out of his thoughts of Lily Evans.

"Will you be quiet?" Remus said, blushing profusely.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sirius asked, looking a little hurt. In third year, they had come up with a Marauder's Code that they had lived by to that day. The first rule was that they would always tell their fellow Marauders everything. There really wasn't anything that the Marauders didn't know about each other, except for this apparently.

"I don't know," Remus said, still blushing slightly, "I thought it was kind of obvious. Anyways, shouldn't we be heading to Hogsmeade now?" he asked, wanting to change the subject. The Marauders had a great idea for a prank for the Leaving Feast. It involved a ton of belch powder, dungbombs and four crates of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Waterproof No-Heat Fireworks.

"Let's go get the cloak," James said, and the Marauders got up and walked across the common room. He had been referring to the invisibility cloak that his father had given him right before he started at Hogwarts. Once they got up to their dormitory, James pulled a large silver cloak that was made of very light material out of his trunk and stuffed it in his pocket.

They left their dormitory and started their walk towards the statute of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor, a one-eyed, hump-backed witch that hid a secret passageway to Honeyduke's cellar in Hogsmeade. "I can't wait until the Map is finished," Sirius muttered as they passed a group of second year Ravenclaws who were eyeing them suspiciously. He was referring to the Marauder's Map, something they had been working on since third year. It was a map of Hogwarts and showed every secret room or passageway in the castle. It also showed every person who was in the castle at that time and where they were. They were almost finished, but since they weren't allowed to do magic over the summer holidays, they would have to wait until September to start working on it again.

"Me too," James said as they reached the statue. Once the corridor was clear, he tapped the statue on the hump of her back and muttered, "Dissendium." A small hole appeared and each of the boys slid through it and started their walk to Hogsmeade.

-----

Once Alice had reached the girls dormitories, she found Lily laying facedown on her bed. "Lily?" she called out tentatively, "Are you alright?"

"I hate him," Lily said, slightly muffled by her pillows. "He is such a pig-headed, arrogant asshole!"

"I know," Alice said, sitting down on Lily's bed.

Lily rolled over and sat up next to Alice. "I hate him! I hate how he always asks me out and acts like I'm just acting when I say no! God, I should have punched him! And does he honestly think that humiliating me in front of _everyone_ will somehow make me want to date him?"

Alice pulled Lily into a hug and said, "He's an idiot." She knew Lily didn't actually hate him. In fact, she knew Lily liked James quite a bit or else he wouldn't be able to get to her like he did. She just hated the way he acted, so childish and immature, and the way he treated others, like they were so inferior to him. But Alice wasn't about to bring that up now; Lily would have taken her head off.

"You're right," Lily said, sighing. She was silent for a few minutes and then she said, "I hate how he puts me on the spot like that. 'I'll change everyone's hair back if you go out with me.' I bet now all the girls here will think it's my fault their hair is some ugly, fluorescent color."

"Lily, you know that's not going to happen," Alice said. "And if anyone does make you feel like it's your fault, tell me and I'll make Emily beat them up."

"Make Emily beat who up?" Madison said as she entered the girls' dormitory.

"Who am I beating up?" Emily asked as she entered the room immediately after Madison.

"Anyone who thinks it's Lily's fault that their hair is the way it is," Alice said as Madison walked over to Lily, made a swishing motion with her wand and muttered something under her breath. Suddenly, there was a loud popping noise and Lily's hair was back to its normal dark red.

"How'd you do that?" Lily asked.

"Potter told me the counter-curse," Madison smiled. She then walked around the room, doing the same thing to Alice, Emily and herself. Once she was done, she asked, "Why would anyone think it was Lily's fault anyways?"

"You heard him," Lily said, starting to calm down now that her hair wasn't that horrendous, neon orange color. "'I'll change everyone's hair back if you go out with me.'"

"Lily," Emily said, changing into a pair of hip-huggers and a t-shirt, "anyone who thinks that has got to be stupider than the Marauders combined."

"That's pretty stupid," Madison laughed.

Samantha and Gwenog entered the room and the six girls got changed in silence. Although they were best friends, Gwenog and Samantha could not have been more different. Samantha had short brown hair that went to her chin, brown eyes and was 5'5". She was a bit of a gossip and had been obsessed with Sirius Black since second year. Gwenog had long blonde hair, hazel eyes and was 5'8". Gwenog was a beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she was very laidback. "Madison, can you change our hair back too?" Samantha asked.

"Sorry Sam," Madison said, "But I promised Potter I wouldn't change anyone else's back."

"Madison!" Lily said, looking scandalized.

"What?" Madison said innocently. "If I ruin their stupid prank, they'll rage an all-out prank war against me, and I do not want to deal with that. I'm sure Sam and Gwen understand."

Gwenog laughed and said, "Yeah. Besides, I kind of like mine. I wonder how long it's going to stay like this for."

"Typical hair color changing jinxes like this last about two weeks," Lily said.

"Great," Samantha said, annoyed. "Maybe I can get Sirius to change it back for me." Emily snorted at this and Samantha glared at her before turning back to Madison. "Hey, we're going to hang out with the fifth year Ravenclaws by the lake. Do you guys want to come?"

"Sure," Alice said while Lily nodded and Madison shrugged as if to say 'Sure, why not?'

"Can't, sorry," Emily said from the mirror, brushing her hair.

Gwenog and Samantha told the three girls to meet them by the lake and hurried out of the dormitory to the Great Hall before breakfast was over. As soon as they were gone, Madison turned to Emily and asked, "Are you and Fabian breaking up today?"

"I guess so," Emily sighed and sat down on her bed. "I don't know. We decided not to talk about this week because we didn't want ruin it, but he's been acting like he wants to try and do the long distance thing. I don't know what to do. "

"Believe me, you don't want to try a long distance relationship," Madison said. "It will only hurt you and stress you out. And they never work out."

"She's right," Lily said. "Think of all the girls he'll be around at the Auror Academy. And all the guys you'll be around here."

Alice nodded in agreement. "And you're both at separate points in your life. I mean, he's officially an adult now, leaving school and starting a job and you still have two more years left here."

"You're right," Emily said, smiling at her friends. "Thanks guys. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Aw," Madison said, laughing, "Group hug!" She held her arms out to the three girls.

"You're crazy," Alice said. She threw a rolled up pair of socks at her, hitting Madison right in the face and the four girls broke into a fit of giggles.

-----

"Is it all clear, Prongs?" Remus asked. They had gone to Hogsmeade and got the belch powder and fireworks from Zonko's and were now back in the secret passageway that was hidden by Gunhilda. They had spent most of the day in Hogsmeade, stopping by the Three Broomsticks to have a drink and ogle Madam Rosmerta, the woman who owned the pub. Now they had to hurry up and get the belch powder down to the kitchens and then back up to Gryffindor Tower to get ready for the Leaving Feast.

"Hold on," James said and he threw the invisibility cloak over himself and poked his head out of the small opening in her back. "Shit!" he hissed, and then quickly pulled himself back in. "Snivellus is out there. And I think he heard me."

"Nice going, Prongs," Peter said.

"We should probably leave these here then if Snivellus is snooping around," Remus said, gesturing to the crates of fireworks. "We can charm them later and then drag them out."

"Good thinking, Moony," James said. He threw the cloak back over his head and looked out the opening again. When he pulled his head back in, he said, "He's still out there."

"I'll get rid of him," Sirius said. He grabbed the invisibility cloak from James, lifted himself halfway out of the opening and muttered the incantation for the bat-bogey hex. Snape ran down the hallway, trying to get away from the bat-sized bogeys that were trying to attack his face. Sirius then lifted himself the rest of the way out of the opening and said, "It's all clear." The other three Marauders were soon out in the hallway and Peter tapped the hump of the witch, muttering "Dissendium" and it moved back into place, covering the opening.

Remus looked at his watch and said, "Peter, did you bring the parchment?" He was referring to the parchment that they had written a bunch of complicated charms on. They were going to use them on the fireworks.

Peter started to go through his pockets, looking more panicked by the second. "Crap! I left them in the room."

"Shit," Remus said. "We don't have time to go to the kitchen, the dormitory, get back here to charm the fireworks and then make it to the Leaving Feast on time."

Sirius grabbed the belch powder and said, "I'll run this down to the kitchens while you guys go back to the dormitory. Besides, the house elves always liked me the best."

"All right, Padfoot," James said. "See you at the feast." With that, the Marauders parted ways. James, Remus and Peter headed towards Gryffindor Tower while Sirius ran down to the kitchen, which was underneath the Great Hall in the basement of the school.

Once Sirius reached the portrait of bowl of fruit, he tickled the pear and a door handle appeared. He opened the portrait to reveal a large kitchen that had long tables that were replicas of the house tables upstairs. There were tons of plates of different dishes on the tables, waiting to be sent up through the ceiling to the Great Hall. As soon as Sirius stepped into the room, he was surrounded by half a dozen house elves, all telling him that he wasn't supposed to be there. He spotted the house elf he was looking for almost immediately. "Blinky!" he said, grinning at her. Blinky was an older, female elf that, for some reason, was very taken with Sirius. She believed everything he told her, and it had come in handy more than a few times. He pulled her into a corner, away from the other elves and said, "Look, Dumbledore told me to come down here and speak to you. He said to put this… seasoning on the food for the Feast. But you can't let any of the other elves see you doing it, alright?"

"Yes, sir," Blinky said, taking the powder from Sirius. "If Dumbledore said that, then Blinky will do it."

"Thanks Blinky," Sirius said, winking at her. "I - I mean, Dumbledore and I knew we could count on you."

Blinky smiled at him and then started to push him out of the portrait hole. "Yes sir, but sir really must leave now. Sir is not supposed to be here right now."

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving," he said as he started walking up to Gryffindor Tower. Halfway there, he noticed someone sitting in the corridor with their knees up to their chin. Sirius smiled, he could recognize that curly hair from a mile away. "Oy, Sullivan!" he called out, and started walking towards her.

Emily groaned and wiped her eyes. "Go away, Black," she said.

"Are you crying?" Sirius asked in shock, sitting down next to her. In the five years he had known Emily, he had never seen her cry. He was beginning to think that she was the one girl who didn't cry about anything. "Wow, I didn't know you had emotions like normal girls."

Emily sighed in frustration. "Didn't you hear me? I'm not in the mood to trade insults with you right now."

He elbowed her in the side. "What's wrong?"

"I just broke up with Fabian," she said, tears starting to run down her cheeks again.

"That's it?" Sirius said, letting out a bark of laughter.

"Yes, that's it," she snapped, lifting her head and looking him in the eye. "You see, unlike you, most people actually care very deeply about the person they're in a relationship with and they actually feel bad when that relationship ends."

"But didn't you just say you broke up with him?" Sirius asked, very confused.

She sighed and started to rub her eyes again. "I couldn't do a long distance thing. It would only end badly."

Sirius nodded and said, "That makes sense. How did he take it?"

"Not good," she said, resting her chin on her knees again.

"What do you mean? What happened?"

She sighed and said, "He said we could make it work if we really tried. And then he told me loved me."

Sirius eyes widened. "And what did you say?"

"I told him I didn't even know what love was. And then he just… stormed off." She buried her face in knees and started to cry again.

Sirius was confused. He was usually able to understand Emily; it was one of the things that he liked about her. But he just couldn't understand why she was so upset about breaking up with this guy, especially since she was the one who dumped him. And he was horrid when it came to crying girls; he never knew what to do. He patted her on the back awkwardly and said, "It'll be alright, Emily."

After a few minutes, Emily lifted her head and wiped the tears off her face. "We better get back to Gryffindor so we can get ready for the Feast." They stood up and Emily gave Sirius a quick hug. "Thanks," she muttered. He grinned at her and they walked quickly back up to Gryffindor Tower.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing in this story 

A/N: Please remember to review, even if you hate it! Tell me how I can make it better ) Also, I'm starting volunteer work this week so I'm going to apologize in advance if it takes me longer than a week to get the next chapter up. I've already started it but I won't have much time during the week to work on it. And thanks to Black For President, I-luv-charmed18 (I know he is a seeker in a movie but J.K. Rowling has also said he was a chaser so I just kind of picked one and went with it haha), Indigo Phibbs, sweet.filo.chik and –scp- for reviewing the last chapter!

**Chapter Three**

"Where have you been?" Lily asked as Emily walked into their dormitory. She had spent most of morning down by the lake, and the rest of the day sitting in the common room with Madison and Alice, talking and laughing about the year that was coming to an end.

Madison was the first to notice her red, puffy eyes. She was slightly shocked, the only time she, Lily or Alice had seen Emily cry had been in third year when her cat, Aristotle, had died. "Oh no," she said. "You broke up with him, didn't you?"

Emily nodded and then moved over to her trunk. "Do you want to talk about it?" Alice asked sympathetically as she started to button up the white blouse that was a part of their Hogwarts uniform.

Emily saw Samantha pretending not to listen and muttered, "Not right now." Madison and Lily nodded knowingly. It wasn't that they didn't like Samantha; it was just that they had to be careful what they said around her because she was a huge gossip. They had learned long ago that they couldn't talk about certain things around her because somehow, in less than a day, the whole school would know. They quickly got dressed in their uniforms, school robes and hats and started their walk down to the Great Hall.

"I hate these stupid hats," Lily said as they exited the portrait hole. "I look like an idiot."

"We all look like idiots," Madison said. Lily rolled her eyes at this. She didn't think Madison could ever look like an idiot. They turned a corner and ran into a very angry looking Fabian and his good friend, Michael Chicoine. The hallway seemed to be filled with an awkward tension. Fabian was glaring at Emily while she was staring determinedly at the floor and the other four shifted back and forth awkwardly. After a few seconds, Madison decided to break the silence. "So, Michael," she said turning to the brown-haired boy, "We were just discussing how stupid these hats looked."

Michael opened his mouth to answer her, but before he could, Fabian rushed by them, deliberately bumping into Emily's shoulder. Michael smiled apologetically at the girls and hurried after his friend. "Well," Alice said as they continued their walk to the Great Hall, "That was awkward."

"I'd say," Madison agreed. She playfully shoved Emily. "Merlin, Sullivan, what did you do to that poor boy?"

"Yeah," Lily said, "He looks really… upset."

Emily sighed and said, "He didn't want to break up but I told him we had to, you know? Long distance things never work out. And then he said we could make it work if we really tried, which was such crap, so I said to him 'Well, what if I don't want to try?'"

"Ouch," Alice said.

"How'd he take that?" Lily asked.

"Not good." Emily laughed and said, "He actually accused me of cheating on him."

"What an idiot," Madison laughed.

"I know," Emily smiled. It made her feel a lot better to go over all the little details with her friends. "So I asked him who I could possibly cheat on him with and he says, you guys will think this is hilarious, 'I don't know who but I'll bet my life that it's one of the Marauders.'" Lily, Alice and Madison started to giggle. "I told him he was being ridiculous."

"And then what happened?" Lily asked as they reached the Great Hall. They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down near the end of it.

Emily looked around to make sure no one was listening to them and then leaned in. The others followed leaned in as well so they could hear when she whispered, "He told me he loved me." Their eyes widened in shock. "I know," she said, sighing.

"So, what'd you say?" Alice asked.

Before Emily could answer, the Marauders came in and sat down next to the girls. "So, are you all done crying now, Sullivan?" Sirius asked.

"Shut it, Black," Emily laughed, pushing him slightly. She turned to the Marauders and said, "So what do you guys have planned for this year?"

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked, trying to look innocent.

"Don't act innocent with us," Madison smiled at him. "We know you guys too well."

"Or you think you do," Remus said coyly.

Alice noticed James looked very solemn and kept looking over anxiously at Randy Allen, a popular sixth year Hufflepuff. "What's wrong, James?" she asked.

"Have you guys heard about the latest attack?" he asked them, and suddenly everyone went serious. Voldemort, a very dark wizard, had started his rise to power last year. He hated muggleborns and wanted to purify the wizarding world by killing all of them. So far, no one in the Ministry of Magic seemed to take him seriously because his attacks were few and far between and they were always on muggleborns.

"Who'd he attack?" Lily asked.

"The Allens, you know, Randy Allen's parents. They got his little brother too. I guess his uncle stopped by this morning and the whole house was just… destroyed. And the Dark Mark was floating above the wreck in the sky. We overheard McGonnagal and Sprout discussing it out in the entrance hall," James said.

"But the Allens are purebloods," Madison asked, confused.

"So? His father is – was – a top Auror and hated Voldemort," Sirius said darkly. "He was probably asked to join the Death Eaters, and when he refused, Voldemort killed his family."

"That's horrible. It doesn't even look like Randy knows yet," Emily said quietly, looking over to the boy at Hufflepuff table.

"Oh no," Alice said, as she watched Professor McGonnagall and Professor Sprout walk over to him and say something to him. Randy gave them a confused look but followed them out to the entrance hall. "I feel so bad."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with her. They all sat in silence, staring at the table, deep in thought. After a minute, Lily said, "Can we talk about something less depressing?"

"Depressing? This isn't depressing, Evans. This is infuriating. It's…" James trailed off. He couldn't find the words to properly describe how he felt. He was angry because he hated the Dark Arts and he hated what Voldemort was doing. He was also worried and a little bit scared, not for himself, but for all the muggleborns he knew, and his family and friends. If Voldemort was now attacking purebloods, no one was safe.

At that moment, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, stood up to deliver his leaving speech and announce the winner of the House Cup. Dumbledore was a brilliant wizard, although he could come off as a bit of a nutter at times. He looked old, with long white hair and a long white beard, but not frail. He had these blue eyes that always seemed to be smiling. "Another year gone!" he said cheerfully, smiling at the students. "And what a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are a little fuller than they were in September… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts. Now, the house cup needs awarding. In fourth place is Hufflepuff with three hundred and thirty-five points; in third, Slytherin with three hundred and ninety-three points; in second, Gryffindor with four hundred and fifteen points; and Ravenclaw has won the cup with four hundred and thirty points!" Everyone at the Ravenclaw table started cheering. A few students around the Hall clapped as well while others looked disgruntled that their house didn't win.

"I can't believe we lost the house cup this year," Lily said as the hall quieted down and the food magically appeared on the gold plates in front of them.

"I can," Emily smiled, glancing at the Marauders as she piled the mashed potatoes on her plate.

"Merlin, Emily, will you leave some for the rest of us?" Alice asked, laughing. She grabbed the spoon out of Emily's hands and starting to fill up her plate.

Madison laughed and then noticed the Marauders were looking around the Hall in anticipation. "Uh-oh. What did you guys do? Is there something in the food?"

Lily took a small bite of a biscuit and said, "It doesn't taste any different." Then she let out a long loud belch. She threw her hands over her mouth and squeaked, "Excuse me!" Alice, Emily and Madison were looking at her in a mixture of shock and amusement.

"That was attractive," Sirius smirked. Suddenly, it seemed like everyone in the hall was burping very loudly.

"You put belch powder in the food! God, you're so immature" Emily said, and she punched Sirius on the arm.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Why are you hitting me? It was Remus's idea!"

Remus laughed and said, "Oh no, Padfoot, don't bring me into this."

"Is that it?" Madison asked, looking a little suspicious. "All you did was put belch powder in the food? You guys are losing your touch."

"Oh, don't worry, Hopkins. It's only just begun," James grinned. Lily rolled her eyes at this and decided to ignore the Marauders for the rest of dinner. She spent the rest of dinner discussing her plans for the summer with Alice and Madison. Emily got into an argument with James and Sirius over who would be the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain next year; they both thought it would be James while Emily was convinced that he was too irresponsible for the job and thought it would be her brother, Matthew. Madison would randomly ask different Marauders what the rest of their prank was, hoping she'd take them by surprise and they would blurt it out. They never did.

When the desserts finally disappeared from the tables, all the students in the Great Hall got up, still belching loudly, and moved towards the doors. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from out in the entrance hall and the smell of dung quickly filled the room. Many students were groaning and covering their noses as they reached the doors to the Great Hall. Once the Marauders reached the doorway, there were more explosions as what appeared to be four crates of fireworks went off, filling the hallway with sparks and smoke.

The girls quickly pushed their way through the crowd and up the stairs. Once they were finally away from the crowds of people and the smell of crap, Alice turned to Emily and said, "Well?"

"Well what?" Emily said, raising an eyebrow at Alice.

"You never told us what you said to Fabian," Lily said.

Emily frowned. "I told him that I'm only fifteen years old and I haven't the slightest idea as to what love is. He just… stormed off after that."

"Boys," Madison muttered. She sighed and said, "They get angry when you lie to them, and then they get angry when you tell them the truth."

They walked in silence for a little while. Then Emily smiled mischievously and said, "So, won't you be saying goodbye to Nathan tonight?"

Madison gasped and said, "Oh no! I told him I'd meet him by the trophy room after dinner. I'll see you guys later!" With that, she ran off in the other direction.

Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. Once they reached the Gryffindor common room, she and Emily sat down in the large armchairs by the fireplace while Alice went upstairs to finish packing her trunk. "So what are you doing this summer?" Emily asked Lily.

Lily sighed. "Well, we're going to Ireland for two weeks at the end of July and Alice is coming with us. But other than that, I'm just going to be stuck with Petunia."

"You can come and stay at my house if you want to get away from her," Emily smiled. She knew how horrible Lily's sister was to her. Petunia Evans hated magic and therefore hated Lily. She called her a freak whenever she could and would scream in horror whenever an owl came with the post or there was even a hint of the wizarding world. Emily thought the only reason why Petunia acted this way was because she was jealous of Lily and all the attention she got from her parents when she was home.

"No thanks," Lily laughed. "I plan on having a nice, Potter-free summer." Emily laughed as well. "You should come and stay at my house for a little while at the end of summer."

Emily started to laugh again, "You sure Petunia won't try to kill me in my sleep?" Last summer, when Emily had stayed over the Evans house for a couple days, she had gotten quite sick of Petunia calling her and Lily freaks and she gave her an acid pop. When Petunia ate it, it had burned a hole right through her tongue and she got so upset that she threatened to kill Emily the next time she was over.

Lily grinned at this and said, "I'm sure you could take her."

Emily smiled and said, "I think I'll have to take you up on your offer. With you and Alice going to Ireland and Madison spending most of her summer in France, I'm going to be stuck by myself with the Marauders and my brothers for half the summer."

Alice came down the stairs with her magical camera and what appeared to be some pictures in her hand. She plopped down in the chair next to Emily and said, "Look what I found in my trunk while I was packing." She handed the pictures to Lily, who was sitting across from her.

"This is from first year!" Lily laughed, looking at the picture of the four girls. They had taken it on their last day of Hogwarts that year out on the grounds. "Wow, we look so young." She looked through the other pictures and started to laugh. There were only three other pictures, one of the girls and the Marauders in third year, in which the James in the photograph kept pulling on Lily's dark red hair and she would turn around to smack him; one of the four girls at the end of last summer, standing outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and waving; and the last one was of Emily and Sirius in what looked like that winter, throwing quaffle-sized snowballs at each other on the grounds of Hogwarts.

"Maybe cause we were," Emily smirked, and she took the pictures when Lily was done with them. She laughed as she looked through the pictures. "Hey," Emily said when she got to the one of her and Sirius, "When did you take this picture?"

Alice laughed and said, "Christmas Day. I yelled to both of you that I was going to take a picture about three times but you guys just ignored me. It's a pretty funny picture, I think."

Emily smiled, "Can I keep it?" Alice nodded and she stuffed it into the pocket of her robes and handed the other pictures back to Alice.

At that moment, the Marauders walked through the portrait hole looking quite proud of themselves. James spotted Lily and smirked. He walked over to where she was sitting and sat down in the chair next to hers. "Did you like our pranks, Evans?"

She rolled her eyes at him and didn't say anything. Remus, Peter and Sirius had followed him over there. Remus and Peter had sat down on the loveseat that was close to the chairs and Sirius stood there awkwardly, looking for a place to sit. He grinned mischievously and sat down on top of Emily. "Ugh," she said from under him, "I think you just broke my legs."

Remus noticed that Alice had some photographs in her hand and said, "Hey, what are those?" Alice handed them over to him and he laughed at the one of all of them in third year. "Some things never change."

"What do you – Knock it off!" Sirius yelled. Emily had been trying to push him off of her but he wouldn't budge. He grabbed her hands from behind him and pinned them to the arms of the chair. She sighed in defeat and muttered that she couldn't breathe as Sirius smirked and turned to Remus again. "Anyways, Moony, what do you mean?"

Remus, who had been watching the two in amusement, handed the picture over to Sirius. Sirius let out a bark of laughter as the Lily in the picture had turned around and smacked James across the face. "Hey, look! They're doing a re-enactment of this morning!" James scowled at this and looked over at Lily, who was frowning and staring at her feet.

Alice tried hard not to laugh and said, "I had an even better one of you, Sirius, but Emily has it now."

"Yeah, and if you got off me I could show you it," Emily said.

"Not going to happen, Sullivan. I can look at the picture later," he smirked, thinking it was only a plan to get him off of her.

"Sirius Black passing on a chance to admire himself? I never thought I'd see the day," Emily said sarcastically.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something but Remus cut him off, not wanting to listen to the two of them bicker. "Where's Madison?" he blurted out, since it was the only thing on his mind. He found it strange that she wasn't sitting with her friends, especially since it was their last night together for a while. However, as soon as he said he knew it was the wrong thing to say because Sirius and Peter were smirking at him now.

"Why?" Alice asked, looking suspicious.

"Just wondering," he muttered, blushing slightly.

"She's saying goodbye to a couple of her friends from different houses," Lily said, smiling knowingly at Remus. Emily snorted at this and Lily would have shot her a dirty look if she could have seen her, but since Sirius was much taller than her, the only part of Emily she could see were her legs. It was pretty obvious to Lily that Remus had a slight crush on Madison and she felt bad for him since Madison was so oblivious to it. In a way, it was a good thing because Madison wasn't exactly good to her boyfriends and Remus was too sweet to have to go through that. Remus frowned slightly and looked at his feet. He knew that Emily had snorted because Madison was saying goodbye to some guy. "And will you quit staring at me!" Lily said, scowling at James. He had been staring at her since he had sat down it seemed and she was getting very annoyed with it.

An awkward silence fell over the group as both James and Sirius was glaring at Lily, who had gone back to staring at her feet. "Anyone up for some Exploding Snap?" Alice said, trying to break the tension.

"No thanks, Smith," Sirius said, grinning devilishly. "I've got to meet up with Marie in a couple minutes."

"Marie?" Emily said from behind him, sounding confused. The only Marie that she knew of was a third year Slytherin.

"Yeah, you know who she is. Seventh year Hufflepuff, blonde hair, humungous bo-" Sirius said.

"Oh, _Marlene_," Emily frowned, interrupting him. Both Alice and Lily were glaring at him now. He could be such a pig when it came to girls and it made them sick.

"Yeah, her. I told her I'd make her last night at Hogwarts a special one, if you know what I mean," he said, winking at Lily who rolled her eyes at him.

"I'll play," Remus said and Peter nodded. James shrugged and nodded as well.

"Me too, if this oaf ever gets off me," Emily said. Sirius frowned and looked like he was about to reply to that comment when Alice interrupted him.

"What about you, Lily?" Lily shrugged as if to say 'Why not?' "I'll go get the cards," Alice said as she jumped from her chair and ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Sirius got up and stretched. "Well, as much fun as this is, I have to go see Darlene now."

"Marlene," James smirked, correcting him. Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.

"Honestly Black, is it that hard to remember the name of the girl you're shagging?" Emily said, laughing at him. The other Marauders seemed to find this hilarious as Sirius turned a deep shade of red. "What's so funny?"

"He does it all the time," James said, gasping for breath. "Remember when he called Samantha Thompson Sandra? And she spread that rumor about him being madly in love Sandra Bulstrode?"

Emily and Lily started to laugh at this. "Or when he called Gwenog Jen? He had a black eye for a week," Remus said and they all started to laugh harder.

"I always wondered where you got that from," Lily called to Sirius, who was about to walk about the portrait hole. He smirked at his friends and gave them the finger before leaving the common room.

Alice came down with the cards a few minutes later to find her friends in hysterics. "What's so funny?" she asked curiously, which seemed to make them laugh harder.

Once she finally caught her breath, Lily said, "We were just laughing at Black."

"Oh," Alice said, looking confused. She shuffled the cards and started to pass them out when Madison walked in the portrait hole, looking very disheveled. Her uniform was wrinkled and her hair looked as if someone had just been playing with it. She was looking around the common room for her friends and didn't seem to notice them in front of the fireplace. "Madison!" Alice yelled across the common room. The blonde smiled and made her way over to them. "We were just about to play a game of Exploding Snap, do you want to join?" Alice asked.

"Sure," Madison said, and she squeezed herself between Remus and Peter on the loveseat. Remus blushed slightly and moved closer to the edge of the sofa. After two games, the girls got annoyed with James's gloating and went up to their dormitory.

Once the girls were gone, Peter looked around the room to make sure no one was listening and said, "Want to work on the Map for a while?"

Remus and James both grinned at this and made their way over to a table in a dark corner of the room. "Padfoot's going to mad that we're doing this without him," Remus said.

"That's too bad," James said, grinning. "He's always off with some girl, if we waited around for him we'd never finish it."

-----

The next morning, all the students were up early to catch the Hogwarts Express back to Platform 9 ¾. For James Potter, this day was always bittersweet. He thought it was great that school was over and he would be able to go home, see his parents, and spend two entire months doing nothing but having fun with his friends. On the other hand, it also meant that he would have to go two entire months without talking to or seeing Lily Evans. Which was strange, considering Emily was one of her best friends and she lived down the street from James, although that may be exactly why she never went over to Emily's. Of course he would write to her everyday like he did every other summer, but she never answered him. He sighed as he watched the Hogwarts castle disappear from view of the small window in the carriage.

"Yeah," Sirius said, looking a little sad. "It feels more like we're leaving home instead of going home." Remus and Peter nodded, agreeing with him. They sat in silence for the rest of the carriage ride.

Once they had gotten to Hogsmeade station, there were tons of students milling around on the platform, saying goodbye to some friends in case they didn't see them on the train or back at Platform 9 ¾. James spotted Lily right away, her red hair making her stick out like a sore thumb. He smirked and walked over to her. "All right, Evans?" he asked, grinning.

"Go away, Potter," she said darkly as she tried to lift her trunk up onto the train.

"Let me help," he said, grabbing her trunk and pulling it up the stairs. Lily followed him closely, telling him to stop. Once they were in the hallway of the train, she snatched her trunk from him and started walking towards the front of the train. "Don't I even get a thank you?" he called after her. He scowled when she flipped him off as she continued walking towards the Prefect's compartment. He sighed to himself and said, "This summer is going to suck."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing in this story. 

A/N: Wow, I finished this chapter a lot sooner than I thought I would! Remember to review, I think they make me write faster haha. ) Thank you to sweet.filo.chik, the all mightly and powerfulM, vivphy05, call me brit and –Scp- for reviewing the last chapter! You guys are awesome )

**Chapter 4**

It was only two weeks into the summer and Sirius could already tell that it was going to be a miserable one. He had been stuck at home, although it didn't feel like a home to him at all. His family was very obsessed with blood lineage and disapproved of anyone that wasn't pureblooded. They could trace the name Black back several generations and were incredibly proud of that fact. They even supported Voldemort and what he was doing, although his parents were too cowardly to join him. Sirius, however, had always been different from his family and they hated him for it. The feeling was definitely mutual.

In the two weeks he had been home, he had been told he was a disgrace to name of Black forty-seven times. His mother had sworn at him about thirty-nine times and his father had taken him into his study and screamed at him about his behavior at Hogwarts nine times. The worst thing for Sirius though was the smug little grin on his little brother, Regulus's face. While Sirius had rejected what their parents had taught them about the importance of purity of blood, Regulus had lapped that crap right up. When they were younger, Sirius tried to make Regulus see the light but Regulus would not have it. Now, he took it as his job to be his parent's spy on Sirius, owling them every week and telling them of all the "disgraceful" things he did at school. Now Regulus was no more of a brother to Sirius than, say, Severus Snape was.

Today was going to be the worst day of his summer so far, though, because his uncle was coming over for dinner and was bringing his daughters, Narcissa, who had just recently married Lucius Malfoy, and Bellatrix, who was engaged to Rudolphus Lestrange. The reason they were coming over was because they wanted to blast his other daughter, Andromeada, off the family tree for marrying a muggleborn wizard and they were going to celebrate it with a nice turkey dinner. It made Sirius sick to his stomach.

At that moment, the doorbell rang and his mother yelled to him, telling him to get the door. "Have Regulus get it!" he yelled back. He knew he had to be a part of this ritual of erasing his favorite cousin from his family, but he had planned on spending as little time as he could at their sick celebration and then spending the rest of the evening locked up in his room.

"He's helping me with the dinner! Now do something right for once and open the damn door," she yelled up the stairs.

Sirius groaned. "Yes, mother," he called down to her, sarcasm dripping from each word. "Friggin' Regulus," he muttered as he made his way down the stairs. "He's more of a lapdog than a son." He opened the door and saw Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. He didn't even bother to pretend to look happy to see them. "They're in the kitchen," he said.

Lucius sneered at him before he and Narcissa walked down into the kitchen that was in the basement of the Black house. He could hear his mother say, "Where is that ungrateful son of mine?" He frowned, realizing his plan to spend as little time as possible with his family wasn't going to work. He walked into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and scowled, "Right here, Mother."

"Good," she said, glaring at him. She made no attempt to hide her disdain for her own son, even in front of company. "You're not going to spend the whole night in your bedroom again. Maybe your cousins will be able to knock some sense into that thick skull of yours. Merlin knows how many times I've tried and failed."

Lucius snorted at this. "I don't know about that, Mrs. Black. I think his blood traitor friends have brainwashed him."

"I know," Mrs. Black said, sighing. "But maybe you could talk to him, Lucius. I've heard about how close you are with Lord Voldemort." Sirius rolled his eyes at this. He couldn't believe that Voldemort actually had his supporters referring to him as Lord anything.

Lucius smiled proudly. He looked over at Sirius, sizing him up. "I don't know… Lord Voldemort is in need of a spy on the Potters and the-"

"I'd rather die than join the Death Eaters and betray my friends," Sirius growled. There was no way he would ever do that to the Potters, they were more of a family to him than his own had ever been. It infuriated him to know that Voldemort was trying to spy on them, and that Lucius thought that Sirius would be up for the job.

Mrs. Black scowled at him. "See what I mean? I knew he was defective from the second he got sorted into Gryffindor. Of course, we had our doubts before that, he was such a troublemaker, but his father was convinced that he was just getting it out of his system before he left for Hogwarts. 'He'll get into Slytherin,' he kept assuring me. When Bella owled us to say that he was a Gryffindor of all things." She sighed and frowned. "Damn near gave us both heart attacks."

"It's alright," Lucius said to her. "Every family has a black sheep."

"I'm standing right here, you know," Sirius said, glaring at them. If looks could kill, they both would have been sprawled on the floor, dead.

"Good!" Mrs. Black said angrily. "You should hear about how much of a disgrace you are!" At that moment, the doorbell rang again. "Go get the door."

He held in a groan and walked back up to the entryway. He opened the door and saw his cousin Bellatrix along with her fiancé, Rudolphus Lestrange, and her father, his uncle Phineas. His uncle was quite older than his sister, Sirius's mother, around twenty years older in fact. He was named after his grandfather, Phineas Nigellus, the least popular headmaster of Hogwarts. His uncle particularly enjoyed belittling Sirius. He tried to hide his look of disgust as he said, "We're all in the kitchen." He lead them to the kitchen and then stood in a dark corner, wishing he could sink through the floor. His mother and his uncle were talking jovially about Bellatrix's recent engagement to Rudolphus while the other four sat at the table and muttered quietly to themselves while Regulus watched them in awe. Sirius knew they were talking about Voldemort's plans; he had overheard his mother telling Regulus earlier about how they had all became Death Eaters as soon as they left Hogwarts.

He was about to sneak out when Mrs. Black said, "Let's go blast that filthy blood traitor off the family tree and then we can eat." They all trooped up the stairs to the drawing room and then crowded into it. Phineas was looking particularly enraged, the wound of his daughter having married a muggleborn, of all people, was still quite deep and he was still very upset over it. "You can do the honors," Mrs. Black said. Phineas's face got redder by the second and after a minute, he pointed his wand at the family tree and suddenly there was smoke coming from the burn mark that was covering Andromeada's name. His cousins cheered while Sirius scowled. "Well," Mrs. Black said, cheerfully, "Let's go eat."

Sirius's father joined them in the dining room for dinner. Bellatrix had spent half of the dinner bragging about how Voldemort wanted to train her in the Dark Arts personally. It made Sirius to sick to his stomach to see how pleased she was with herself. He couldn't wait until this stupid dinner was over so he could lock himself back up in his room. His ears perked up when he heard his uncle say, "Have you heard about Joseph Sullivan's son?"

"Which?" Mrs. Black said, scowling. The Sullivans were worse than the Potters in her eyes. Joseph Sullivan, Emily's father, had married a muggle, which was a crime worse than murder in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. At least the Potters were a prominent pureblood family, even if they had publicly denounced Voldemort.

"Their oldest, I can't remember his name, just got engaged to a muggle," Phineas said, frowning. "Harold Potter told me at work today. He couldn't have been happier. I wanted to throw up."

Mrs. Black shook her head. "That family is such filth, and has been ever since Joseph married that muggle. It serves him right that she died and left him with all those dirty, half-blooded children. And the Potters aren't much better, filthy blood traitors." Sirius could feel his face growing hot. "What's the matter with you?" she spat at Sirius, whose face was a bright red.

"Those are his friends," Bellatrix sneered and then loud out a cold, cruel laugh.

Phineas looked disgusted. "You let your son associate with scum like that?"

Mrs. Black scowled, "We've tried everything we could to make him stop but he doesn't listen to us anymore. He's just as filthy as they are."

Phineas looked over at Sirius and gave him an evil grin. "Don't worry, when Voldemort is in power, his friends will be the first to go. Maybe then he will see the light." Sirius snorted at that. "Oh, you think being a blood traitor is funny, do you?"

"No," Sirius said, smirking at his uncle, "I think the idea of that crackpot, Voldemort, ever coming into power is quite hilarious, actually."

His family didn't seem to find it as funny as he did. His mother had gasped and her fork fell with a clatter onto the table. His father's face had turned a very deep shade of red. Narcissa and Bellatrix were glaring daggers at him while Lucius and Rudolphus were gripping their wands underneath their robes. His uncle had to be the angriest, though. He had stood up, his face was red and his wand was drawn and pointed at Sirius. "How dare you!" he bellowed. "When – not if – Lord Voldemort comes into power, you and your filthy blood traitor friends will be the first to go! He does not give mercy to those who doubt him and you, you filthy scum, will not be shown any pity, even if you are a Black!" When he said that, a jet of red light came out of his wand and Sirius had to duck as it hit the wall directly behind where he was sitting.

"Phineas!" his father said calmly. Even if he was ashamed of his son, it didn't mean his brother-in-law could come in and start hexing him. "Control yourself!"

"It's not his fault!" Mrs. Black screeched. "Sirius riled him up, and he knew he was doing it! He's just trying to get out of dinner, the manipulative little bastard!" At that point, Sirius had had enough. His uncle had tried to stun him, and his mother still found a way to make it his fault. He slammed his fork down onto the table and stormed out of the room. From the hallway, he could hear his mother yelling, "Where are you going? Get back here! You need to hear about how much of a disgrace you are, how much you disgust your family!"

Sirius ran up the stairs two at a time and slammed the door to his room. He couldn't stand being in that house another second. He started putting the little he had taken out of his trunk back into it. Once he was done, he grabbed his wand and dragged his trunk down the stairs. When his mother saw him walk by the door to the dining room with his trunk, she leapt from her chair and hurried into the hallway. "Where do you think you're going?" she shrieked.

"I've had enough of this bullshit!" Sirius said, anger coursing through his veins. "I'm leaving!"

"Oh no you're not!" she screamed and she raised her wand, ready to hex him.

Sirius whipped around with his wand drawn. "Don't even think about it," he growled.

She gasped, "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me," Sirius said evenly.

She lowered her wand and said, "Sirius Orion Black! If you walk out that door you will never be welcome in this house again! We will take you off the family tree, just like we did to Andromeada! You will be dead to us!"

"Good," Sirius said. He didn't want to be a part of the Black family anymore. He slammed the front door shut and then took a deep breath. It felt good to know that he was finally free of them, but he was also worried because he didn't have anywhere to go. He walked down the street a little and sat on the sidewalk, trying to think of place he could stay the night. After ten minutes, a light rain started to fall. "Fuck," Sirius muttered. He stood up and stuck his wand hand out. He wasn't going to sit around in the rain and he was sure James would let him stay at his house for the night. He could figure it all out in the morning.

There was a loud popping noise and a purple triple-decker bus appeared in front of him. A young guy with thick glasses hopped off the Knight Bus and said, "Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Ernie Prang and I will be your conductor this evening." He jumped off the step and took Sirius's trunk. "Where to?" he asked.

"Godric's Hollow," Sirius said as he followed him up the stairs to the second level of the bus. The bus looked a lot bigger inside; there was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling and it was full of empty beds. The boy put his trunk down by one of them and said, "It will take us a few hours. And it'll be eleven sickles, but for thirteen you can get chocolate and for fifteen you can get a hot water bottle and a toothbrush in the color of your choice."

Sirius nodded, gave him eleven sickles and sat down on his bed. The boy went downstairs and with a loud bang, Sirius was thrown back onto his bed. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, he knew if he watched the way this bus was being driven he would definitely get carsick.

They finally reached James house at half past two in the morning. "Shit," Sirius said, when he saw that the large house was completely dark. They were either not home or asleep. He walked over to the side of house and found the window that he knew was James's. He picked a small rock up off the ground and threw it at his window. "James!" he hissed loudly. Sirius knew this wasn't going to work, though, because James was a very deep sleeper. He threw a larger rock at James's window and waited a couple of minutes. "Damnit, James!" he said, and he threw another large rock as hard as he could at the window. He threw it a little too hard, however, because James's window shattered with a loud crashing noise.

It worked though because a few seconds later, James was standing at the window with his wand drawn. "Sirius?" he whispered, wiping his eyes. When he was sure he wasn't dreaming, he yelled, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Shhh," Sirius whispered up to him. "You'll wake everybody up."

"Oh no, I think you've already done that." James was always cranky when he first woke up. He looked over at his alarm clock and said, "What the hell, Padfoot? It's two fucking thirty in the morning."

"Will you just come to the door so I can tell you?" Sirius said, starting to regret coming to James's house.

James nodded and disappeared from view. Sirius walked over to the door and a couple seconds later, James opened it. He noticed Sirius's trunk for the first time and said, "You ran away, didn't you?"

Sirius smiled sheepishly and said, "I just – I couldn't take it anymore. Can I stay here for the night so I can figure out what I'm going to do?"

"What a stupid question, of course you can," James said, stepping out of the doorway so Sirius could walk in. "You can live here, you know. I mean, if you want to."

"Really?" Sirius asked, trying not to sound too excited. "Your parents wouldn't mind?"

James rolled his eyes. "Of course not. I think they like you more than they like me."

Sirius beamed and hugged James. Then, as if he suddenly realized what he was doing, Sirius jumped back and tried to look as casual as possible. "Thanks," he muttered.

James laughed and said, "Yeah, just don't hug me again." He helped Sirius carry his trunk up to the guest bedroom and then bade him goodnight. James went back into his room and groaned, remembering that his window was broken. He made a mental note to get Sirius back for that and then he wrapped himself in one of his blankets and fell asleep.

-----

Lily and Alice woke up to the sound of Lily's sister, Petunia Evans, screaming downstairs. "What is she screaming about now?" Alice groaned from the floor next to Lily's bed. She had gotten to the Evans house late last night and Petunia had screeched then about how there were too many freaks in her house.

"Probably another owl," Lily said, sighing. She wanted to keep sleeping; Alice had kept her up late that night talking about Frank Longbottom but she had to get up because they were leaving for Ireland soon. "You better get used to it, she does it practically everyday."

"Why? Isn't she used to them by now?" Alice said sounding confused. She got up and followed Lily into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Lily rolled her eyes at this. "You'd think so, but she has this irrational fear of them. It's ridiculous."

They walked down to the kitchen and found that it was, in fact, an owl that had made Petunia scream. "Can't you make those dirty birds stay out of our kitchen?" Petunia shrieked when Lily and Alice entered the room. Petunia Evans could not have been more different than her sister. In fact, most people were shocked when they found out they were sisters. She had short, blonde hair, and a very long neck. She loved to gossip, hated everything that was abnormal and was very cruel to Lily and her "freak" friends.

"Sorry, Petty," Lily said, using a nickname that Petunia hated, "but I can't really make them do anything." Petunia glared at her and then stormed out of the room.

Alice looked amused as she sat down at the table. "You know, you can make them-"

"I know," Lily interrupted. She smiled mischievously and said, "I just like doing that to Petty." She got two bowls and a box of cereal out of the cupboard.

"Petty?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. She poured the cereal into her bowl, covered it with milk and then started to eat.

"Yeah," Lily said, doing the same. "I used to call her that when I was little because I couldn't say 'Petunia.' She hated being called it then, and she hates it even more now."

Alice laughed and rolled her eyes at her friend. Sometimes she thought that Petunia might not hate Lily so much if Lily didn't try to torture her all the time. She picked up the envelope that the owl had brought and said, "Whose it from anyways?"

"Probably Potter," Lily said darkly. She took it from Alice, opened it up and looked at the bottom of the letter. "Yep, it's from him." She crumpled it up and threw it in the trash without reading it.

"You're not even going to read it?" Alice asked, feeling a little angry for him. Sure, James Potter was conceited and arrogant, but Alice always felt a little bad for him. It seemed like no matter what he did, Lily would never give him a chance.

"No. I used to read them, but they're all the same thing. 'Today I played pranks on some poor, unsuspecting muggles. And then my stupid friends came over and we played some more pranks. They went home, I ate dinner and played some more pranks. Pranks prank pranks. Please go out with me.' Believe me, Alice, once you're read one, you've read them all," Lily said, sounding disgruntled.

Alice shook her head and laughed at this. At that moment, Lily's mother, Rose Evans, walked into the kitchen. She smiled brightly at Lily and Alice and said, "Oh, I should have known that you were the ones upsetting Petunia."

"We weren't!" Lily said. "She was just screaming because of an owl."

"Well, you know how much she hates them," Rose said. "Did you get your school letter?"

"No," Lily sighed.

"Who keeps sending you all these letters?" Rose asked, looking interested.

"No one," Lily muttered.

Alice laughed. "James Potter," she said, smirking.

Rose, who had been looking in the cupboard for a pan, whipped around and smiled, "A boy? A boy has been sending you letters every day this summer?"

"Thanks a lot, Alice," Lily muttered. She knew her mother wouldn't let this go now.

"Lily," her mother said sternly. "Why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend?"

Lily's father, Jeffrey Evans, walked into the kitchen as Rose said that. He sputtered at the word boyfriend and exclaimed, "What!"

Alice started to laugh. Lily blushed and said, "He is not my boyfriend! Honestly Mother, you are blowing this way out of proportion."

Jeffrey sat down at the table and said, "Good. You're too young for a boyfriend."

Rose looked at her husband and smiled, "She is not! We were her age when we started dating."

"I know," Jeffrey said, looking grave. "And I remember what we did whe-"

"Honestly! Can you not talk about that in front of company!" Lily said, interrupting him. Her face was beet red now.

Alice, who was laughing hysterically, said, "Oh, I don't mind." Lily glared at her.

Jeffrey chuckled as he started to read the newspaper. Rose bustled around making scramble eggs, and the kitchen was silent for a few minutes. Then Rose turned around and said, "If he's not your boyfriend, why is he sending you all these letters?"

Alice smirked at this and said, "Because he wants to be her boyfriend."

Lily scowled at her and added, "And he can't understand that I hate him."

Rose tutted at this as she sat down at the table. "Now Lily, don't you think hate is a little bit strong of a word?"

Lily groaned at this and said, "No, mother, it is exactly the right word. And if you knew James Potter, you would understand."

Jeffrey lowered his newspaper and said, "Why? Has he done anything to you?"

"Besides humiliate me in front of the whole school? No," Lily said. Alice sighed; she knew Lily was going to go into one of her infamous 'I-Hate-James-Potter' rants. "He is just an arrogant, conceited prat. He acts like he's God's gift to the planet and he gets away with everything! And he's so immature! He pranks everyone at school, even the teachers, hexes anyone who gets in his way, and he's so mean to anyone that isn't his friend. And he's been asking me out everyday since fourth year! I've tried everything but he just won't leave me alone!" Rose and Jeffrey started to laugh. "It's not funny! He's an immature, bullying toe rag and I can't stand him!"

Once Rose had stopped laughing, she said, "Is he cute?"

Lily looked at her mother in a mixture of shock and anger. "Is he – That's besides the point, Mother! Have you been listening to a word I've said!" She turned and saw Alice nodding at her mother, trying her hardest not to laugh. She narrowed her eyes at her and said, "No he is not! God, I can't believe that I can't even escape from James Potter in my own damned house!" With that, Lily stormed out of the kitchen and they could hear her stomping up the stairs and into her room.

Jeffrey stated to chuckle again. "She has such a temper."

"Mmm," Rose frowned. "She gets it from you."

Alice smiled at them and said, "I better go talk to her." She put her dishes in the sink and then ran up to Lily's room. She found her sitting on her bed with her arms crossed, staring out into space. "Hey," Alice said as she walked over and sat down next to Lily. "I'm sorry for teasing you about James."

"It's alright," Lily sighed. "I kind of overreacted. It's just that my nice, Potter-free summer is not working out as planned. I mean, he sends me letters everyday and now that my mother knows about him, she will not stop bringing him up. It's like I can't escape from him, even when he isn't even here."

Alice smiled and said, "Well, I promise not to tease you about James again this summer."

"Thanks," Lily said, smirking. "As long as I can still tease you about Frank Longbottom." Lily let out a sarcastic, dreamy sigh after she said Frank's name.

Alice gasped and hit Lily with a pillow. "Watch it, Evans, or I might have to take my promise back." They both started giggling and hitting each other with Lily's pillows.

After a few minutes, Rose was screaming up the stairs. "Girls! Get ready, we're leaving for the airport in an hour!"

They heard Petunia open the door of the room next door and scream, "I'm not going anywhere with those freaks!" They could hear Rose groan and then walk up the stairs and into Petunia's room.

Lily rolled her eyes at this and said, "This is going to be an interesting vacation." She walked towards the wall to see if she could hear what they were saying when Alice hit her in the back of the head with a pillow. "Hey!" she laughed, turning around and their pillow fight continued until Rose came in the room a half hour later and yelled at them to hurry up and get ready.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this story.

A/N: Many thanks to –Scp-, sweet.filo.chik, and the all mighty and powerful M for reviewing! You guys are awesome haha. And seriously people please review! I know people are reading this but hardly anyone is saying anything. If you like it, tell me! If you hate it, tell me why (but please don't flame. Those aren't cool.)! And I have a question for you guys, do you think my chapters are too long? This one is by far the longest I have written so far, but I'm not sure if it's bordering on too long or not. Also, tell me what you think of the characters, please! Do they annoy you? Do you like them? Come on, please review… they make me smile and want to write more! And that is a good thing, right?

**Chapter 5**

James's summer had definitely gotten better since Sirius had moved in with them. Before Sirius came, he had spent most of the summer sulking. He had written to Lily everyday and she had never written back. He would wake up and wait patiently for his owl to return, and he would always be incredibly disappointed when it showed up with no letter for him. But now Sirius was able to help him get his mind off of Lily Evans. They had spent the week pranking his parents and some of his neighbors. They couldn't use magic over the summer so they had to resort to juvenile muggle pranks, like loosening the cover on their saltshaker, but it was fun nonetheless.

When his parents had woken up and seen Sirius there, they were a little surprised. Ok, they were very surprised. At first, Mr. Potter had wanted to go and make sure that it was alright with the Blacks if Sirius stayed with them, but after Sirius had given them a full recount of the night he left, they decided that it wasn't necessary. James had gotten Matthew Sullivan, who was a legal adult and able to do magic whenever he wanted, to help him get Sirius back for breaking his window by turning Sirius's hair hot pink. When James walked into the kitchen, he saw that Mrs. Potter was yet again doting on Sirius, whose hair was finally beginning to fade while his father read the Daily Prophet.

Sirius was sitting at the kitchen table while Mrs. Potter made eggs and pancakes. "Are you sure you'll be able to eat all of this, Sirius?" she asked skeptically.

James laughed at this and said, "He eats a whole lot more at school."

Sirius grinned and said, "Well, I'm a growing boy. Besides, my mother would never make me such great food. She said I ate too much."

James snorted at this. "I wonder where she got that idea."

Sirius smiled sarcastically at James as Mrs. Potter put two large plates full of pancakes, eggs and bacon in front of him. "Would you like anything, James?"

"Just toast," he said, smiling at his mother. At that moment, his owl, Hamish, flew threw the open window with nothing attached to his leg. He frowned and swore under his breath.

"What are you so mad about?" Sirius asked, his mouth full of pancakes. "And where do you keep sending Hamish?"

"To Evans's place," James muttered.

Sirius smirked and said, "What was that, Prongs? I'm afraid I didn't hear you."

"I said I've been sending to him to Lily's bloody house!" James said.

"Please don't swear, James," Mrs. Potter said, giving him a plate of toast. "And who is Lily?"

"Only the love of his life," Sirius said, snickering.

James glowered at Sirius and said, "She is not!"

This did not fool Mr. Potter, though. He looked at Hamish and said, "Why isn't she writing back?"

"Because she hates him," Sirius smirked.

"She does not!" James said, indignant. "She just… strongly dislikes me."

Sirius snorted at this. "Strong dislike, that's it."

Mrs. Potter looked confused. She sat down at the table and said, "If she doesn't like you, why do you keep sending her letters?"

James sighed at this. "I don't know," he muttered.

Mr. Potter started to laugh. "Is she that pretty?"

James smiled and seemed to go into some kind of trance. "She's beautiful. And she's so smart, she's in the top of our year and she's a prefect. She's so funny too, and she has this great laugh. And she's so nice. She stands up for everyone, even if she doesn't like them, and she tutors first years in charms and-"

James was interrupted by Sirius making retching noises. "Honestly, James," he said, "You sound like a stalker."

Mrs. Potter looked amused, "Yes, James, it's great that she's all those things but if she doesn't like you then there's nothing you can really do about it."

James sighed in frustration and Mr. Potter chuckled. "I don't know, dear. If I remember correctly, you didn't exactly like me at first."

"Yes," Mrs. Potter laughed. "But that was only because you acted like an enormous ass whenever I was around."

Sirius laughed, "So that's where he gets it from!"

Mr. Potter started to laugh and Mrs. Potter looked thoughtful. "You know, Lily Evans sounds familiar. Isn't she friends with Emily?" James nodded. "Well, maybe she could talk to Lily for you?"

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "He's tried that. Sullivan won't do it."

"Why not?" Mr. Potter asked.

"She thinks Lily will kill her if she does," James said, looking disgruntled.

Mr. Potter chuckled, "Wow. She must really… err… strongly dislike you."

Sirius started cracking up. "You should hear her at school! What was it she said, James? She'd rather date the-"

"Can we please talk about something else?" James asked, scowling.

Mrs. Potter, who felt very bad for James, changed the subject right away. "Have you heard from Remus and Peter yet?"

"Yeah," James said, smiling at his mother. "Remus is coming tomorrow but he can only stay for a couple days. He said he could come back next week, though." He looked over at Sirius; they both knew the reason Remus had to leave for a while was because the full moon was coming up. It was much worse for Remus in the summer. His parents locked him in a large shed in their backyard and he didn't have his friends there to keep him company. They never mentioned this to his parents though, because James's mother didn't know and they didn't know how exactly she would react. It wasn't that she was prejudiced, but a mother could be quite irrational when it came to her son.

"What about Peter?" she asked.

"Oh, he has to go and stay with his grandparents in Scotland for a week, but he said he'd come after that," Sirius said.

"The four of you together in our house for a couple weeks," Mrs. Potter sighed.

Mr. Potter looked at Mrs. Potter and said, "Merlin help us."

"We're not that bad," James laughed. At that moment, the doorbell rang. Mrs. Potter got up and went to get the door. A few seconds later, she came back into the kitchen, followed by Matthew Sullivan and Frank Longbottom. "Hey," James said.

"Hey," Frank said, sitting down at the table.

Matt lifted himself up onto on the counter and said, "We wanted to know if you guys wanted to come with us to the Appleby Arrows match tonight. Andrew got us a box." Andrew Sullivan, his brother, worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

"Sure," Mr. Potter said, while Mrs. Potter, James and Sirius nodded.

"Who are they playing?" James asked.

"The Wasps," Frank said, sounding excited. The Wimbourne Wasps were a hated rival of the Arrows.

James grinned; the Wasps were his favorite team. "Great! Who else is coming?"

"Well, you four, Dad, Andrew, Dom and his new fiancé, Frank and I," Matt said. Dominic was the oldest Sullivan child.

"Isn't Dom's fiancé a muggle?" Mrs. Potter asked, confused.

"Yeah," Matt said. "Well, we don't know if she can come. He left as soon as he could to get some kind of special clearance for her. And if he can't get it, he said he'd sneak her in. He really wants her to go and see a Quidditch match."

"Emily's not coming?" Sirius asked, looking puzzled. "She always said that she would give her right arm to see the Apples pummel the Wasps in person."

Matt's expression darkened. "No. She has a date."

"She's blowing off the Arrows for a guy? Is she ill?" James said, shocked. This definitely did not sound like the Emily he knew.

"Andrew didn't tell us about it until this morning, after she had made plans with the guy. She was in a right mood with him when we left," Frank laughed.

James laughed as well. "I can imagine. Who is she going on a date with?"

"Davey Walker," Matt scowled.

"That idiot!" Mr. Potter said. Davey was a muggle that lived next door to the Potters.

"Harold!" Mrs. Potter scolded, although she looked as if she were trying hard not to smile. "Davey is a very nice young man!"

"Yeah," James smirked. "A very nice young man that's also as dumb as a post."

"You guys want to go and play some Quidditch?" Matt asked them as he hopped off the counter. The Potters had a Quidditch field hidden by large trees in their backyard.

James and Sirius nodded. "What about Emily?" James asked.

Matt laughed, "Well, I'd ask her to come but when we left she was attempting to smash a plate over Andrew's head. You know how she gets when she's angry."

Sirius grinned and said, "Yeah, it's probably best if she didn't come."

-----

Lily was not having a nice vacation. Although her and Alice were having fun exploring Dublin, Petunia was ruining it for them. She had fought tooth and nail against going to Ireland with her "freak" of a sister and that "freak" friend of hers. Mr. and Mrs. Evans ended up having to practically drag her, kicking and screaming, to the car. She sulked the whole plane ride and had locked herself in the guest bedroom of their grandparents' house. For a whole week, she refused to come out unless Lily and Alice were in their room or not in the house at all.

So that was why Lily and Alice were sitting at the kitchen table while Rose and Jeffery Evans, along with Rose's mother, were upstairs, pleading with Petunia to come out so they could have a nice family breakfast at least once during their trip.

"That girl needs a good smack," her grandfather said. "Maybe then she would start behaving. If my Rose had ever acted that way…" he trailed off. They all knew what he would have done if Rose had acted that way. Lily's grandfather was a very strict, very cranky old man. He did not put up with people's crap, especially his family's, and was always the first to tell someone when they were acting like an asshole. But he seemed to have a soft spot for certain people, like his wife, Rose, and Lily.

"Grandpa," Lily said, although she kind of wished he would smack some sense into her sister.

"The fact that you are a witch is a gift, not a burden. It's not right that she treats you like that," he said softly. Lily's grandparents had only found out two years ago that she was a witch. An owl had brought her school letter to her when she was at their house and it had raised quite a few questions. They couldn't have been prouder when they found out, though. Lily smiled at him and was about to say something when he pointed at the window and said, "Look! It's amazing how they always know where you are!"

Lily and Alice both whipped around and saw a large, tawny owl holding two envelopes. "It's our school letters!" Lily squealed. She had been dying to know her O.W.L. results ever since she had taken them. Alice groaned at the thought, she was sure she had failed every O.W.L. she had taken and would be thrown out of Hogwarts. Lily ripped her letter open and went immediately to the results. After taking a minute to read them, she raised her arms over her head and said, "I got twelve O.W.L.s! Twelve! And they're all O's!"

Alice gasped and said, "Congrats, Lily!"

"Uh… Is that a good thing?" Her grandfather asked, confused.

"It's great, Grandpa!" Lily said excitedly. She went behind him and hugged him before running into the hallway. "Mom! Dad! Petty! I got my O.W.L. results!" she called up the stairs. She could hear Petunia's muffled yell, "I don't care, freak!" Her father, however, hurried down the hallway and stood at the top of the stairs and gave her a look that said 'Well?' "I got twelve O.W.L.s! All O's!"

"That's great, Lil!" He ran down the stairs and gave her a huge hug. When he let her go he looked confused and said, "Wait. What does O mean?"

"Outstanding!" Lily squealed. It took all she had to not jump up and down.

They walked into the kitchen together and her grandfather asked, "What's this O.W.L. you keep talking about?"

Alice smiled and said, "O.W.L.s are Ordinary Wizarding Levels. They test you on everything you learned in your first five years at Hogwarts. They're pretty important because they determine which N.E.W.T. classes you can take."

"N.E.W.T.?" Her grandfather asked, looking even more confused.

"Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," Lily said. "Your results on those determine what careers you can get."

"And 'O' means…?" he asked.

"Outstanding!" Lily said, beaming.

"Congratulations, Lily," he smiled at her. "I'm so proud of you."

"Thank you," she said, hugging him again. She turned to Alice and said "Well? What did you get?"

"Nine O.W.L.s," Alice said, smiling. "Six O's, two E's and one A."

"That's great!" Lily said. She noticed that Alice looked a little disappointed. "Why aren't you excited?"

"I am," Alice said. "It's just… Frank hasn't written back yet."

Lily frowned. It had taken Alice a week to get up the nerve to send Frank a letter, and if he didn't write back soon Lily was going to kill him. "I'm sure he will soon. Maybe he's just been really busy."

"Maybe," Alice said, not looking like she believed that.

"Don't worry, Alice, he will. Or I'll kill him," Lily said, trying to cheer her up.

Alice laughed at this and was about to say something when Petunia entered the kitchen. Alice and Lily both looked at her with their mouths open in shock, it was the first time since they had arrived that Petunia was in the same room as them. Petunia glared at them as she sat down at the table. Rose and her mother walked in a few seconds later, beaming. "Now we can finally have a nice family breakfast," Rose said as she sat down next to Petunia. Lily was sure it wasn't going to be as nice as Rose expected because Petunia was glaring daggers at her and Alice. An uncomfortable silence fell over the table. A large, black owl flew in the open window holding an envelope. Petunia let out a loud, high-pitched scream and ran from the room. Rose groaned and ran after her daughter.

Lily, however, was glaring at the owl. "Not again!" she shrieked. She ripped the envelope off of the owl and threw it away. "I can't get away from him, even when I leave the damned country!" Alice and Jeffrey laughed at this while Lily's grandfather looked confused.

Once they had finished breakfast, Lily's grandmother sent them out to pick up some last minute things for the big family dinner she had planned that night. A couple of Lily's aunts and uncles were coming over and she was a little apprehensive because she hadn't seen them in years.

"So who's coming to this thing tonight?" Alice said as they walked to a small grocery store that was about ten minutes away from Lily's grandparent's house.

"My aunt Milly, her husband Brian and their son Robert, he's about eight now I think," Lily said. "My great aunt Margaret, My uncle Phil, his wife Tina and their daughter, Lisa. I'm pretty sure she's our age. And a couple more relatives that I don't remember."

Alice laughed, "Wow. You know so much about your family."

Lily shrugged and said, "I haven't seen any of them since I was ten. And remember, you have to watch what you say in front of them. They don't know that I am… what I am."

Alice nodded and said, "Would they have a problem with it if they knew?"

Lily sighed at this, "My great aunt Margaret probably would. I swear Petty is a spitting image of her. I don't know about the rest of them."

"I'm sorry, Lily," Alice said sympathetically. She felt really bad for Lily. She was a pureblood, but she understood how hard it was for muggleborns. They were shunned in the muggle world for being magical, and they were shunned in the wizarding world for being muggleborn. She didn't know how Lily was able to put up with it.

Lily laughed at this and said, "Don't feel sorry for me, Alice. I love being a witch and I wouldn't change who I am for anything."

Alice smiled at this. They walked in silence until they got to the store. "What do we have to get?" Alice asked Lily. Lily showed her in the list her grandmother had given her and they went around the store, putting things in their basket.

Alice was walking around wide-eyed. She had never been in a muggle grocery store. She kept pointing at ordinary things and marveling at how amazing they were. After she had done this for a few minutes, Lily started to get annoyed. "Smith, will you knock it off? People are staring!"

"Sorry," Alice said, sheepishly.

Once they were done, they went to the counter. Alice stared wide-eyed in amazement as she watched the clerk scan the items and bag them. "Are you alright?" he asked after a few minutes, sounding amused. He looked like he was around their age, with short brown hair and green eyes.

"Yeah, she just doesn't get out that much," Lily said. She blushed as she noticed him checking her out.

"I'm Tim O'Toole," he smiled at her.

Lily looked him up and down. He really was quite cute. "I'm Lily Evans," she said, smiling back. "And that's Alice Smith."

"So Lily Evans," he said coyly, "Why haven't I seen you around here before?"

"Maybe you just haven't been looking hard enough," she said flirtatiously as she handed him the money that she owed. She couldn't believe that she was actually flirting with some random guy that she had just met. Although Lily was far from ugly, hardly any guys approached her at Hogwarts. They all seemed to know that if they got involved with Lily, they would feel the wrath of James Potter.

He laughed at this and said, "No really. Are you from around here?"

"No, we're from England," Alice said, looking over at Lily. She also couldn't believe that Lily was flirting with this guy.

"We're here to visit my grandparents," Lily added, glaring at Alice.

"Oh," he said, sounding disappointed. "When do you leave?"

"Next week," Lily said.

His face brightened and he smiled, "Well, Lily Evans, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Can we have our stuff now?" Alice asked, getting a little annoyed with their flirting. He had been holding the bag full of what they had just bought for what seemed like five minutes now.

Lily glared at her before turning to Tim and said, "Nothing. Why?"

"Well, I have the day off. Maybe we could do something?" he asked. Alice rolled her eyes as he handed the bag to her. "Don't worry, Alice. I'll bring my friend Charlie along with me. He loves English girls," he smiled.

Alice sounded very annoyed when she said, "That's really no- OUCH!" She turned and glared at Lily, who had just stomped on her foot.

"We'd love to," Lily smiled at him.

Alice grabbed Lily's wrist and dragged her out of the store. Once they were outside, she turned to Lily and hissed, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Lighten up, Alice," Lily said as they started the walk back to her grandparents' house. "It's not like I did anything wrong."

"I do not want to hang out with some random stranger that loves English girls!" Alice said shrilly.

Lily laughed at this. "Well, you don't have to be nice to him. Come on, Alice. Please do this for me."

"Why do you want to go on a date with some random guy that we will never see again anyways?" Alice asked, confused.

"You must have noticed by now how no guy at school wants to date me because of bloody Potter! Now I can finally go on a date with a guy without Potter getting in the way!" Lily said angrily. She stopped walking and looked at Alice. "Please Alice," she pleaded with her. "Please just do this for me."

Alice sighed in defeat. "Fine. But if Chuck tries anything, we are out of there."

Lily laughed, "Charlie. His name is Charlie."

-----

James and Sirius trudged into the Potter's house, covered in sweat. They had spent most of the day playing Quidditch and now they only had two hours to get showered and ready for the match. When they walked in the backdoor, Mrs. Potter flew into the room holding two envelopes. "Your Hogwarts letters came in," she said, looking apprehensive.

"Why didn't you tell us?" James said. He grabbed the envelope and ripped it open.

"Didn't want to ruin your day," Mrs. Potter smirked.

"Oh, but you're willing to ruin our night?" Sirius grinned. He found his O.W.L. results and said, "Nine O.W.L.s, seven O's and two E's. Pretty good, I'd say. What'd you get James?"

James grinned. "Ten O.W.L.s, nine O's and one E."

"Congrats," Sirius said, slapping him on the back. "Did you get Quidditch Captain?"

James turned his envelope upside down and shook it. "No," he said, frowning.

Sirius laughed. "I guess Sullivan was right, you're too irresponsible for the job."

James started to laugh too. "Yeah, probably. I didn't want it anyways. It would be too much work and responsibility."

Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes at this. "Honestly James, responsibility really isn't the worst thing in the world."

James grinned at his mother and said, "Come on, Padfoot. Let's go get ready."

Forty-five minutes later, the Potters and Sirius were on their way to the Sullivan's house. When they got there, Matt opened the door. "Hey," he said. "We just have to wait for Dom and Cailynn."

"So he's sneaking her in?" Mr. Potter asked.

Matt grinned at this and said, "Yeah, well, he's going to try anyways. Dad and Andrew are in the living room."

When Mr. and Mrs. Potter had walked into the other room, James turned to Matt and said, "Did you get your Hogwarts letters today?"

"Yeah," Matt said, looking confused. "Why?"

"Well?" Sirius said. "Did you get Quidditch captain?"

"No," Matt said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Who did?" James asked, confused.

Matt smiled mischievously and said, "Emily knows. Go ask her, she's upstairs."

James looked at him in confusion before he headed up the stairs with Sirius following him. He started down the hallway and noticed her in the bathroom, putting make-up on. James whistled at her to get her attention and she jumped in surprise. She whipped around and started laughing once she saw them. "Nice hair, Black."

He smiled sarcastically at her and said, "Matt said you knew who the new Quidditch captain was."

Emily smirked at them and said, "Yeah I do. What's it to you?"

James rolled his eyes and said, "Will you just tell us who it is?"

Emily couldn't help but grin as she said, "Me."

"You!" Sirius said in shock.

Emily glared at him and said, "Yes, me. What's so wrong with that?"

"Well it's just that-" Sirius was cut off by James elbowing him sharply in the side. "Nothing."

Emily narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the mirror and said, "So are you guys going to the match tonight?"

"Yeah," Sirius smirked. "Jealous?"

"Yes," Emily sighed. "I can't believe Andrew! He kept telling me he wouldn't be able to get tickets to it so I made plans with Davey. Then this morning he tells us he was able to get a whole fricken' box!"

James laughed, "Why are you going out with Davey anyways? I thought you said he was the biggest idiot in all of England."

"He is," Emily smirked. "But I don't plan on spending a lot of time talking with him."

James frowned at this and said, "You've been spending way too much time with Sirius."

Emily snorted and said, "Yeah, except I can actually remember Davey's name and I don't plan on shagging him anytime soon."

"Hey!" Sirius said in mock offense. "I resent that."

"Why?" Emily smirked. "It's the truth."

At that moment, Matt appeared at the doorway and said, "James, can Dom borrow your invisibility cloak? He wants to try and sneak Cailynn into the match."

Emily laughed at this and said, "He's such an idiot. It isn't going to work." Matt rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, sure," James said. "I'll go get it." James left the room with Matt following him down the hall.

"Why wouldn't it work?" Sirius asked curiously. He lifted himself up onto the counter in the bathroom as Emily laughed.

"Honestly, don't you know anything? They have tons of anti-muggle jinxes around the stadium. The second she gets close to it, she's going to suddenly remember that she has a dentist appointment that she needs to get to right away," she said loftily. Then she turned and glared at him. "And don't you have something to say to me?"

He stared at her in confusion for a minute before realization hit him. "Happy Birthday," he said, smiling sheepishly.

Emily laughed. "Yeah, you're only a week and a half late."

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" he grinned.

"Yeah, to go to the fucking Quidditch match," she smirked. "And without a present I see." He narrowed his eyes at her and opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off. "I'm only fucking with you, Black. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

He grinned at her. "Well, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically, "But I've had a lot on my mind lately."

Emily's expression softened. "Yeah, I heard that you had moved in with the Potters. What happened?" Sirius recounted the night he left the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black to her. "Your mother is such a –" she bit her lip to stop herself from swearing. "No offense, but if she was on fire, I wouldn't piss on her to put her out."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "You're so lady-like." She smiled sarcastically at him and he said, "Yeah, I wouldn't either." He sat back against the wall and sighed. "So how was your birthday?"

"Horrible. My father, Andrew and Matt all gave me separate sex talks," she said, shuddering from the memory. "I've never been so embarrassed in my life." Sirius started to laugh hysterically at this, he could just picture all three of them sitting with a red-faced Emily, discussing where babies came from and how to practice safe sex. He was finally able to stop laughing after a few minutes and he watched her get ready in silence. For some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. He had never seen Emily look so, for lack of a better word, pretty before. Her normally curly hair was straight and she had left it down. She was wearing a short jean skirt that showed off her tan legs and a black top that clung to her body. Although he would never admit it, he actually felt very attracted to her at that moment.

Finally, after feeling his eyes on her for a few minutes, Emily looked at him and said, "What? Do I look stupid or something?"

"No," he said quietly, tearing his gaze from her. "You look great." Emily raised an eyebrow at him; she didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not. An awkward silence seemed to fill the room. After a few minutes, Emily was done and started to put her stuff back into her make-up bag. Sirius noticed a long, silver object and picked it up. "What the hell is this?" he laughed.

Emily looked up at what he was holding and rolled her eyes. "An eyelash curler," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"It looks like some kind of torture device," he said. He slid his fingers into the finger holes and started playing with it.

"Will you give me that before you hurt yourself?" she said as she grabbed it from him. "I swear you are the biggest idiot on the face of the planet."

Sirius laughed. "No, you're going on a date with the biggest idiot on the face of the planet."

Emily pretended to laugh at this before saying, "At least he's a lot smarter than any of the girls you've dated." She left the bathroom and walked into her bedroom.

Sirius pretended to be offended as he followed her. "Hey! Karen Fletcher was at the top of her year."

"First of all," Emily said, trying not to laugh, "Her name was Corinne. And the girl had no common sense whatsoever."

"Yes she did!" Sirius said, although he looked a little confused. He was almost certain her name was Karen, or maybe he was thinking of someone else.

"No she didn't! If she had any, she wouldn't have dated you!" Emily smirked, "You don't even remember who she was now, do you?"

Sirius looked deep in thought for a minute before muttering, "Not really."

Emily went into hysterics. When she was done laughing, she took a deep breath and said, "You don't remember the girl who announced that she was going to marry you to the entire Great Hall? The same one who, after you broke up with her, followed you around for weeks in tears, begging you to take her back?"

"Oh, her," Sirius grimaced. "She was a bit annoying."

"A bit?" Emily said shrilly. "Everyday for a month she gave me these pathetic love letters to give to you! And then she would talk to me about you for hours! Do you know how horrifying it was to sit there and listen to her ramble on about how much you broke her heart?"

"What?" Sirius laughed. "You never gave me those letters! You were sabotaging our relationship, weren't you?"

Emily picked a pillow up off her bed and threw it at his head. "No! I was trying to help her keep her dignity! I kept telling her she shouldn't lose her self respect over a guy, especially one like you!"

"One like me?" Sirius said angrily. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're a player," Emily said. "You make girls think you're in love with them to see how far you can get with them and then you throw them away once you're done with them. It's quite disgusting actually."

"Well, it's not my fault that they can't hold my interest for longer than a couple weeks," he smirked.

Emily glared at him and said, "You're such a pig." The doorbell rang and she smiled. "Have fun at the match," she said before hurrying downstairs.

Sirius followed her out. He stood at the top of the stairs and frowned as Davey pulled Emily into a hug and then whispered something in her ear. His stomach turned over as Emily giggled and hit him playfully on the arm. He had the strange urge to run down the stairs and pummel Davey until he couldn't breathe. Emily looked up and Sirius caught her eye. She rolled her eyes at him and waved before being pulled out the front door by Davey.

Once they were gone, Sirius walked down to the living room and saw that James and Matt were back. "Hey Sirius, this is Cailynn," Dominic, the oldest of the Sullivan children, said while gesturing to the pretty woman sitting next to him. "Lynn, this is Sirius Black. He's the one that moved in with the Potters."

Cailynn had long, wavy blonde hair, dark brown eyes and had the look of someone who had just been overloaded with information. She looked at Sirius and said, in what sounded like amazement, "Are you a wizard too?" Sirius laughed and nodded. "Oh. So I'm the only mug here. That's what you call them right?" she asked Dom.

He laughed at her and said, "It's muggle. And yes you are."

Andrew stood up and said, "We better get going. It's a ten minute walk to the portkey and it leaves in about fifteen minutes."

"What's a port-what's-it?" Cailynn asked as she walked out the door.

Sirius and James laughed at this and then grinned at each other. Mr. Potter saw the look in their eyes though, and said, "You guys better not do anything to her or you will both be grounded until the end of summer." They rolled their eyes at this and walked in silence, listening to Dom trying to explain portkeys and Quidditch to Cailynn.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this fiction. 

A/N: Oh wow, sorry about that guys! I don't want you to think I've abandoned the story, because I would never do that, but I've been insanely busy. I'm volunteering two nights a week, and then the rest of my time is pretty much full with classes, homework, work, and sad attempts at a social life. Plus I had my wisdom teeth taken out over my Christmas break and I actually wrote a lot then, except none of it made sense because of the drugs I was on so I ended up having to delete it all and write it over again. I don't want to ramble too long but I have not and will not give up on this story, it just takes me a lot longer to write now. To make up for this, I'm posting two chapters for you guys. Sorry again about the long wait, please don't hate me and please review! Many thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter!

**Chapter 6**

The next day, Lily had spent two hours getting ready for her date with Tim. Now, she was sitting in the hallway, waiting rather impatiently for the doorbell to ring. After she had been sitting there for a few minutes, Alice walked into the hall and sat down next to her. "You do realize how pathetic you look, right?" she asked Lily, smirking.

"Shut up," Lily smiled as she lightly shoved Alice. "I'm just anxious… I've never been on a proper date before."

Alice looked puzzled for a moment before saying, "Didn't you go on a date with Amos Diggory last Halloween?"

Lily groaned at the thought. "That one doesn't count because Potter sabotaged it before it could actually start."

"Sabotaged?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure you just weren't a bad date?"

Lily laughed sarcastically at this and then said, "I'm pretty sure it was Potter. He followed us all around Hogsmeade! He kept interrupting us and trying to cause distractions by setting people's robes on fire. When we went into Madam Puddifoot's, we weren't even there for ten minutes before he came in screaming about a troll running loose near Honeyduke's. And then, when Amos leaned in to kiss me, Potter sends a bat-bogey hex his way! It was the worst date that I have ever been on in my life."

"It's the only date you've ever been on in your life," Alice smirked.

"Yeah," Lily said, sounding annoyed. "And that's about to change."

The doorbell rang and Lily jumped up. She ran to the door and then turned to Alice. "Wait," she whispered. "I'm going to seem desperate, aren't I? I should make him wait. I'm going to go get my mum to open-"

Alice stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes at Lily. "Honestly," she said, "you're being completely neurotic." She pushed past Lily and opened the door.

"Hi," Tim grinned. "Where's Lily?"

"Right here," Lily said, coming into view of the doorway.

Tim's eyes widened. She was wearing a pair of hip-huggers and a tight dark green top. "You look great," he grinned.

Lily blushed and said, "Thanks."

Alice rolled her eyes at this and said, "Where's Charlie?"

Tim smiled at her and said, "He's going to meet us there."

"Where's there?" Lily asked coyly.

"Movie Theater," he said, smiling at her. He grabbed her by the hand and walked them to a beat up Volkswagen van that was parked out front. He turned the key in the ignition and the car made a funny noise.

"It isn't going to blow up, is it?" Alice asked, referring to the loud whiny noise it was making.

He laughed. "No, it always does that." He looked at Lily and smiled. Something caught his eye and he said, "Is that an owl? I've never seen one out in the day like that."

"No!" Lily said as the car finally started. "I'm pretty sure it was a crow! Let's go now!" Tim gave her a puzzled look before pulling away from the curb. "What movie are we going to see, anyways?" Lily asked.

"Jaws," he smiled. "There's this one place on the other side of town that'll be playing it until the end of the month. It's my favorite movie."

"What's a-" Alice started to ask but stopped when Lily turned around and glared at her.

"What's a what?" Tim asked, sounding curious.

"A Jaws," Alice said lamely. She was really starting to wish she had taken Muggle Studies because she had no idea what a movie was.

"You've never heard of it!" Tim asked, astonished. "You really don't get out much, do you?" Lily laughed as Alice glared at the back of Tim's head. "Well, it's about this shark that goes around attacking people," he said.

"Interesting…" Alice said sarcastically.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and held them out to the two girls. "Want one?"

"Uh, no," Lily said, looking at the pack with disgust.

Tim shrugged his shoulders, took a cigarette out and lit it. Lily rolled her window down and they rode the rest of the way in silence. After a few minutes, they pulled up outside a grimy movie theater. When they walked in, a boy with red hair down to his chin and blue eyes walked up to him. "Hey Tim!" he said, eyeing the two girls.

"Hey Charlie," he said. "This is Lily and Alice. Girls, this is Charlie,"

"Hey Alice," Charlie grinned.

"Hi," she muttered as they walked over to the box office and got tickets. When they walked into the movie theater, Alice tried and failed at hiding her amazement.

"Alice, you're acting like you've never been to a movie theater before," Charlie said, amused.

"I just haven't been to one in a long time," Alice lied. She was actually really amazed by the large screen but quite disgusted at how dirty the little place was. "Urgh, my feet are sticking to the floor."

Tim laughed at this. "Yeah, this place is a little dirty. It gives it character."

Alice rolled her eyes. They sat down in the middle of the empty theater. She sighed in disgust when she looked over and saw Lily and Tim were already snogging. Charlie noticed her looking at them and grinned, "Disgusting, isn't it?"

"I'd say," Alice said. "What time does this stupid thing start anyways?"

"A few minutes, I think," he said. "So how do you know Lily?"

"We go to the same boarding school," Alice said.

"Oh," he said. "So, do you have a boyfriend at this boarding school?"

"No," Alice said. She didn't like the grin on his face after she had said that. Before he could say anything else, the lights dimmed in the theater and the movie started.

Alice was definitely not having a good time on this date. Charlie kept trying to put his arm around Alice, even though she kept shrugging it off and although she had never seen a movie before, she was pretty sure this one was the stupidest one out there. And it didn't help that Lily and Tim were snogging right next to her. It was almost as if they were trying to eat each other's faces.

When the movie was over, they got up and walked out of the theater. Tim put his arm around Lily and said, "So, what would you lovely ladies like to do now?"

"Actually, I just remembered we have a family dinner thing to attend," Lily said. "Do you think you could just take us home?"

Alice shot Lily a questioning look while Tim looked confused. "Sure," he said. They rode the way to Lily's house in silence. When they pulled up in front of her house, he asked, "So, do you think I'll be able to see you again?"

"Maybe," Lily smiled at him as she got out of the car.

Once they were in the house, Alice turned to Lily and said, "What was that about?"

"Urgh," Lily said. "That was like licking an ashtray. I couldn't stand it anymore."

Alice laughed. "Was it better than your last date?"

"By far," Lily said. "There was no Potter trying to ruin it or hex Tim. And I finally got my first kiss."

"What was that?" Rose smiled as she walked into the hallway.

"Nothing!" Lily said. "We're going to go upstairs and change." She dragged Alice upstairs before her mother could say anything else.

When they got up to Lily's room, they found four separate owls waiting for them. The one that Alice was most excited to see, though, was her own with a letter in its beak. "He wrote back!" she practically shouted. She ran over to her owl and tore the envelope open.

Lily laughed at her behavior. She grabbed the envelope from the owl that she knew was Madison's and opened it up. "Hey," she said to Alice after she had read it, "Madison wants us both to go over and spend the last few days of summer at her place. She said we could go to Diagon Alley and Platform 9 ¾ with her."

"Sure," Alice said, sighing happily.

"What are you so happy about?" Lily asked.

Alice grinned at her and said, "He said he misses me. And he made Head Boy."

Lily smiled. "That's great! So I guess it makes up for him taking so long to write back?"

"Definitely," Alice sighed.

Lily smirked. "Blimey, you're pathetic."

Alice rolled her eyes at this and said, "Whatever. What'd Emily say?"

Lily shrugged. She grabbed the letter from Emily's owl. She sat down next to Alice on the bed and they read the letter together. "Poor girl," Lily said sympathetically. "I don't know how she's made it through the summer stuck with the Marauders and her brothers."

Alice laughed, "Yeah, it must be hell."

-----

"No, he'd catch on to that right away," Remus said. He, James and Sirius were all sitting in James's bedroom that night, planning the prank they would play on Peter as soon as he arrived the next day.

"There's no way Wormtail would realize anything until it was too late!" Sirius said.

"Honestly, Padfoot," James said, exasperated. "Peter is a lot smarter than you give him credit for."

Sirius rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Well then what if we put cockroach clusters-"

James's father came into the room looking flustered and interrupted him. "James," he said, "I've just been called into work."

"But it's nine o'clock at night," James said, looking confused.

"There's been another attack," his father said simply. "Make sure you listen to your mother, alright? She's down in the kitchen with Emily and Matt." James nodded and with that, his father walked out of the house quickly. His father and Joseph Sullivan were both Aurors and were always called in to work when there was an attack, no matter the time of day.

James, Remus and Sirius walked down into the Potter's kitchen and sat down at the table next to Emily and Matt, both of them looking shaken. "What's going on? Who was attacked?" Remus asked.

"The Harrises," Mrs. Potter said as she attempted to make tea. She seemed to be too flustered, though. She put down the kettle and said, "Your father and I were in school with Warty. If anything happened to-"

Emily shot out of her chair. "It's alright, Mrs. Potter," she said coming up behind her. "Sit down, I'll make the tea."

Mrs. Potter smiled at her and sat down where Emily had been sitting. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Lydia?" she asked. Emily smiled at her and then turned back to the stove. "Warty was such a nice guy," Mrs. Potter said, sighing. "A bit oblivious, mind you, but he would give anyone the shirt off his back if they asked for it."

"What happened?" James asked.

"Warty's wife came home from work to find the Dark Mark over her house," Mrs. Potter said, shuddering at the thought. "She contacted the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in hysterics before she even went in, the poor thing."

"That's horrible," James said somberly.

Remus, Sirius and Matt nodded. They sat in silence for a minute while Emily finished making the tea. "Thank you," Mrs. Potter said as Emily handed her a cup. They drank it in silence.

When Mrs. Potter was finished, she got up and made towards the sink. Emily hurried forward and said, "I'll do it."

Mrs. Potter smiled at her. "Thank you," she said, yawning. "I think I'm going to go lay down."

Once she had left the kitchen, Matt turned to James and said, "Is it alright if I watch the rest of the match on your TV?"

Emily laughed at this. "I knew you were going to bring that up," she said from the sink.

"Shut up," he said, glaring at her.

"What match?" James asked.

"His stupid football match," Emily said, rolling her eyes.

"Err… what?" he said, puzzled.

"Honestly James. How can you live in England for sixteen years and not know what football is?" Matt said, looking amused. "Follow me." James, Remus and Sirius followed Matt into the living room and listened as he explained football to them.

After a few minutes, James said, "Quidditch is definitely better than this rubbish."

"Obviously," Matt said, "but football is alright."

"Yeah, if you want to get bored to tears," Emily said as she entered the room.

Matt, pretending not to have heard Emily, continued explaining the rules of the game to the other three boys. After a few minutes, Sirius interrupted him by saying, "I don't get it. Why don't they just pick it up and throw it past that bloke in the net?"

"Because it's called _foot_ball, you prat," Emily smirked. "I don't think it would be called that if they could just pick the ball up and throw it around."

Sirius glared at her and opened his mouth to retort when James said, "Hey! Isn't that your owl?"

Emily looked up and saw a large tawny owl sitting on the window ledge with a letter in its beak. She ran to the window, opened it and then took the letter from the owl. "Who is it from?" Matt asked curiously.

Emily tore the envelope open, glanced at the bottom and said, "Lily."

James quickly jumped to his feet and walked over to where Emily was standing. She was too busy reading the letter to notice him reading it over her shoulder. "What!" he said, startling Emily. "She's been on a date? With who?"

Emily whipped around and narrowed her eyes at James. "Nosy bastard," she muttered. She folded the letter and tried to put it in her pocket but James grabbed it from her and ran to the other side of the room. She chased after him, trying to snatch the letter back.

"Well, at least it wasn't a good one," he said, holding it out of her reach as he continued reading it. "What's this? 'P.S. Please tell James to stop owling me as he is ruining my nice Potter-free summer.'" Emily jumped up and grabbed the letter from him. Sirius and Remus started to laugh at this but stopped at the glare James sent them. "Fine," he raged, his face getting red. "If that wench doesn't want me writing to her anymore, I won't!" With that, he stormed out of the room and they could hear him stomping up the steps.

Sirius and Remus got up at once and followed James upstairs to his bedroom. When they got there, James was tying a piece of parchment to Hamish's leg before opening the window so Hamish could take off into the night. "What was that?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"My last letter to Evans," he said, sounding grumpy. "Telling her to get the fuck over herself."

"I'm sure she'll be falling at your feet after that, Prongs," Sirius said, rolling his eyes at his friend.

"I don't care!" James said. "Who does she think she is, anyways? Most girls in our year would kill to have me write them everyday of the holidays."

"So why not write to them?" Emily asked from the doorway.

"That's a good question," Remus said, smirking slightly. Of course he knew why James was writing to Lily and not those girls, but he wanted to hear James admit it.

"Because I'm not," James muttered darkly as he sat down on his bed.

"Well there's a good reason," Sirius said sarcastically as he sat next to James.

"Really James," Remus said, exasperated, "if you would just stop pestering her, she would probably stop hating you."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Sirius said. "Don't listen to Moony, Prongs. He doesn't know what he's talking about. You don't get girls by ignoring them." Emily snorted at this and Sirius looked up at her. "What?"

"James, Remus knows more than that git does about getting a girl like Lily Evans," she said, leaning against the doorframe.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked.

"It means that the only girls you can get are brainless slags," Emily smirked.

"Sullivan," Sirius said coldly, "It's not my fault that you're-" He stopped when he heard Matt screaming in anger. "What the fuck? Is he alright?"

"His team probably just lost. I'd better go and make sure he doesn't attempt to drown himself in the sink," Emily said. She laughed at this and walked downstairs.

"It's kind of pathetic when you're the only one laughing at your own jokes, Sullivan!" Sirius called after her.

"She's what?" James asked curiously.

Sirius looked at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You were saying it's not your fault that she's…" Remus said, "So, what is she?"

"Jealous," Sirius said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Jealous!" James said, looking confused. "Jealous of what?"

"The girls I date."

James looked confused, "Why would she jealous of them?"

"I don't know," Sirius muttered. "Because I'm dating them?" he added as an afterthought.

James looked at Sirius in shock before bursting into laughter. When he was finally done laughing, he said, "That's the funniest thing I've heard all week." While trying to catch his breath, he got up and patted Sirius on the shoulder while saying, "Thanks Padfoot, I needed that." He walked out of the room.

Sirius scowled at this. He turned to Remus and said, "Well, she's been making comments like that all summer. Why else would she be doing that?"

Remus frowned at this. Sirius did have a point. He shrugged his shoulders and they followed James out of the room.

-----

"God, Petty, could you drive any slower? You're going twenty kilometers under the speed limit!" Lily said feeling very frustrated. Petunia had been forced by their mother to drive her to Madison's house. Lily had already spent three hours in the car with Petunia and she was pretty sure she couldn't stand another minute of it.

Petunia scowled at this. For a minute, Lily thought she wasn't going to say anything and just keep making that ugly face at her. But then Petunia muttered, "I'm being safe."

"Safe!" Lily said. "Petty, we were just passed by a car full of old people! And maybe you didn't notice, but they were flipping us off!"

"I don't care what they were doing, Lily!" Petunia snapped. "And stop calling me Petty. It's bad enough Mom made me drive you to your freak friend's house."

Lily rolled her eyes at this and threw herself back against her seat. "I'll stop calling you that when you start driving a little faster," she muttered. If Petunia heard her, she made no sign of it. They rode in a tense silence until they finally reached Madison's house an hour later. "Finally," Lily said as Petunia drove through the gate and up the drive.

When she saw the house, which had four floors and was an off-white color, Petunia's eyes went wide with shock. "One of your freak friends lives _here_?"

Lily snorted at this. She could tell Petunia was having some sort of inner battle. On one hand, she hated anything that was related to magic and Lily, but on the other hand, she always did her best to suck up to the wealthy. "What did you expect, a small lop-sided shack? There are wealthy wizards, you know. And Madison's a muggleborn, like me."

"A muggle-what?" Petunia asked as Lily got out of the car.

"Muggleborn. It means she's the only witch in her family," Lily said when she opened the backdoor to the car to get her things. "Open the trunk, please," she said before slamming the door.

As she was pulling her Hogwarts trunk out of the trunk of the car, she heard someone yell, "Lily's here!" She turned and saw Madison and Emily running down the stairs of the house towards her. A few seconds later, they were both hugging her tightly.

"Hey guys," Lily laughed, hugging them both. "Where's Alice?"

"She should be here soon," Emily said. She took one of Lily's bags and they started towards the house.

Lily turned back and waved to Petunia. "Bye, Petty! See you at Christmas!" Petunia glared at Lily before backing out of the drive.

"She's such a friendly person," Emily smirked.

Lily turned to Emily and smiled, "I need to talk to you about something."

"Ok…" Emily said, looking confused.

"What exactly did you say to Potter?" Lily said as they walked in the front door and up the stairs to Madison's room.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, sounding even more confused.

"Well, about three weeks ago he sent me owl saying that he got my message from you. And that I was a huge bitch that needed to 'get the fuck over herself,'" Lily said, smirking.

Emily snorted. "Oh, that. Don't you remember when you wrote me that letter with the P.S. asking me to tell James to stop writing you?"

"Yeah but I didn't think you'd actually say anything to him," Lily laughed.

"I didn't!" Emily said. "He was there when your owl came. When he found out it was from you, he just took it and read it."

"And you couldn't get it back?" Lily asked.

"Believe me, I tired," Emily said as they walked into Madison's room. "Why do you care anyways?"

"Yeah," Madison chimed in. "Since when have you cared about hurting Potter's feelings?"

"I didn't hurt his feelings!" Lily said. "I made him angry, which means that now all he's going to do this year is bother me even more!"

"So what?" Madison said. "He's been bothering you for the past two years and you've always dealt with him just fine."

Emily laughed at this. "Yes, because completely flipping out and slapping him every other day is dealing just fine. And you did hurt his feelings, Lily."

Lily frowned at this. Madison giggled and said, "Oh, so you do care about hurting his feelings?"

"No I don't!" Lily said quickly. Madison and Emily exchanged looks that clearly said they didn't believe her and started to laugh. "I really don't!" Lily said, starting to get angry. "Those letters were annoying and now my mum knows about him, thanks to Alice, and she hasn't shut up about him! I'm glad I hurt his feelings. In fact, I hope I made him cry!" Emily and Madison started to laugh harder. Lily opened her mouth to continue her tirade when the doorbell rang. Lily ran down the stairs to open the door. Madison and Emily stayed in Madison's room; both were laughing so hard that they had had to sit down. "Nutters," Lily muttered before opening the door. "Alice!" She hugged her before moving out of the way so Alice could come in.

"Hey Lily," Alice smiled. "Where's Madison?"

Lily sighed. "Madison and Emily are upstairs being completely insane."

Alice shot her a questioning look before following her up the stairs. When they reached Madison's room, the two girls were still in hysterics. "What's so funny?"

"Lily is upset that she hurt Potter's feelings," Madison said between giggles.

"I am not!" Lily snapped.

Alice giggled at this. "Then why is your face turning all red?"

"Because I am getting fed up with you three!" Lily said. Alice and Emily stopped laughing immediately while Madison put her hand over her mouth, trying to muffle her laughter. "Sorry," Lily muttered. "It's just a-"

"Touchy subject, we know," Alice said, looking at Lily knowingly. Madison laughed harder at this and did a pretty bad job at trying to cover it up by coughing.

Lily turned and glared at Madison until she stopped giggling. "Sorry," Madison muttered before deciding to change the subject before Lily really blew her top. "So, tell me about this guy you went on a date with in Ireland."

Alice groaned at this. "Ugh, that guy was an idiot."

Lily laughed at this. "He was not!"

"Lily," Alice said, "The guy was as dumb as a rock."

"Why?" Emily asked curiously. "What happened?"

"Well, he couldn't understand that Lily was avoiding him!" Alice said, starting to laugh. "I mean, she pretty much blew him off after that horrid movie and then he showed up at our doorstep every day after that for a week!"

Lily laughed as well. "Yeah, I made my grandmother answer the door and tell him we went back to England early but he still kept stopping by."

"'_But she told me she wouldn't be leaving until Saturday!'_" Alice laughed, doing a perfect imitation of Tim.

"Why'd you go out with him anyways?" Madison asked, looking amused. "I mean, going on a date with some random guy you just met is such an un-Lily-like thing to do."

"Yeah," Emily smirked, "I was afraid you were turning into Madison for a while there." Madison gasped in mock-offense and lightly shoved Emily.

"I don't know," Lily sighed. "It's just that he was the first really cute guy to show any interest in me in a while. You guys know how it is at Hogwarts, none of the guys there will even look at me because James bloody Potter has them all convinced that I'm his "property."" Lily scowled, "It makes me sick just thinking about it."

"That's true," Madison nodded. "So what happened to make you want to avoid him?"

"Urgh," Lily grinned. "When I kissed him, it was like licking an ashtray. It really started to get to me after a couple hours." The other three girls laughed at this. Lily turned to Alice and smirked. "So, Smith, did Frank write you again?"

"Yes he did," Emily said, sounding both amused and annoyed.

Alice raised an eyebrow at Emily. "How'd you know that?"

Emily grinned. "Because Frank spent pretty much the whole summer at my house. Every time you wrote him, he and Matt would go over what he should say in his reply for hours. It was really annoying, actually."

Alice beamed at this. "I think you just made her day, Emily," Madison said, laughing.

Lily laughed too. "Her day? More like her entire month! You guys should have heard her when we were in Ireland. _'Do you think I should get Frank a present?'_ or _'It's been two days! Why hasn't Frank written back yet?'_ or _'It's been four days! Should I write him again or will I seem too desperate?'_ or-"

"Shut up!" Alice said, cutting Lily off. She picked a pillow up off the bed and threw it at Lily. "I was not that bad!"

"If you say so," Lily laughed.

Alice decided to change the subject to something that didn't involve her or Frank Longbottom. "So Madison, how's Nathan?"

Madison frowned at that. "Nathan? Nathan Davies?"

"No, the other Nathan you were dating at the end of the year," Emily said derisively.

"Oh, I broke up with him awhile ago," Madison said. "Actually, I met this guy in France, Jacques."

"Was he cute?" Alice asked.

"Of course," Madison laughed. "Didn't speak much English, although we really never did much talking. He gave me his address and phone number when I left but I doubt I'll be using them."

Lily laughed. "You're horrible."

Madison smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "So how was your summer, Sullivan?"

"Incredibly boring," Emily said.

"But weren't the Marauders just up the street from you?" Madison asked.

"Yeah, but they got obnoxious after a week so I spent practically the whole summer avoiding them," Emily scowled.

"Didn't you say you went on a date in one of your letters?" Alice asked.

"Oh, that," Emily laughed. "It was with Davey Walker and it was a big mistake."

"Why?" Madison asked.

"Davey Walker? Didn't I meet him?" Alice asked, trying to remember the boy whose name sounded so familiar. "Oh right! He was the boy that was convinced that cats laid eggs, wasn't he?"

Emily grinned sheepishly. "Yes, but he's gotten a lot cuter since you met him."

"If he's so cute, why was it a big mistake?" Lily said.

"He thinks cats lay eggs, Lily," Emily laughed. "And, I don't know, it's just that the whole time I was wishing I was with somebody else, anybody else actually."

"I know the feeling," Madison said sympathetically.

"Me too," Alice said.

"What!" Madison said, whipping her head around to look at Alice. "How?"

"It was how I felt when I went on the horrible double date with Lily, the ashtray and Chuck, who _loves_ English girls," Alice frowned.

Lily laughed, "His name was Charlie!"

"It doesn't matter!" Alice said. "He was annoying and wouldn't stop touching me!"

"What a creep," Emily said, sounding disgusted. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Lily said. "Really Alice, you are too nice for your own good. If you didn't want him touching you then you should have told him to stop, I'm sure he would have. And all he did was put his arm around you."

"How would you even know?" Alice said. She felt a little annoyed with Lily. "You were too busy snogging Tim!"

"I was not!" Lily laughed. She picked up the pillow that Alice had thrown at her earlier and hit Alice in the head with it. Alice let out a cry of mock indignation, picked up one of the other pillows on the bed and started hitting Lily repeatedly with it. Soon Madison and Emily joined in and they had a full out pillow war until one of the pillows broke and feathers went flying around the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this fiction.

**Chapter 7**

"Padfoot, wake up!" James said as he barged into Sirius's room. "It's already nine! We have to hurry if we want to make the train to Hogwarts!"

"Go away," Sirius mumbled from his bed. He rolled over and pulled the covers over his head. "Not going back to Hogwarts. Want to keep sleeping."

"Come on," James smiled, "I don't want to go back either but we can't miss the train." This, of course, was a lie. September 1st was James's favorite day of the year, although he would never admit that, especially not to Sirius. Today was the day that he would see Lily Evans for the first time after two months. In fact, he had been counting down to this day since the summer holidays had started. He walked over to Sirius's bed and pulled the blankets off of it.

Sirius groaned before sitting up. "Don't lie to me, Prongs. And wipe that grin off your face before I punch you."

"I'm not lying!" James said, trying very hard not to smile and failing.

"Yes you are," Sirius said, getting out of bed. "You can't wait to get to King's Cross because then you finally get to see Evans after two long months. Don't think I didn't notice you crossing off the days on your calendar."

"Yeah, well, just hurry up, Padfoot," James frowned as he walked out of the room. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where his parents were sitting at the table. "Is Sirius ready yet?" Mrs. Potter asked.

James grinned at his mother. "I finally got him to drag his ass out of bed."

"I hope we'll be able to get to the train station on time," Mr. Potter said, looking at his watch.

"I'm sure we will with the way you drive," Mrs. Potter said, pursing her lips.

"There is nothing wrong with the way I drive," Mr. Potter said stubbornly.

James tuned his parents bickering out. He was very nervous about seeing Lily later that day. Although he was still as angry with her as he was when he had sent his last letter, he was excited to see her. He also knew that there was no way she would even speak to him after the things he had said in that letter. He really didn't know why he had gotten so mad. Sirius was convinced that it was because James was in "love" with Lily and hadn't stopped taking the mickey out of him since. James frowned at this thought. He was beginning to think Sirius was right, which was actually kind of scaring him. It was such a stupid James thing to do, falling for a girl that so plainly hated him.

"What's wrong, James?" Mrs. Potter asked, breaking James out of his reverie. "You look as if your best friend died."

"No, I'm still alive and well," Sirius said as he entered the kitchen.

"Unfortunately for us," James muttered, smirking at his best friend.

Sirius laughed and punched James on the shoulder. "Sirius, you'll have to eat quickly if you want to make the train," Mrs. Potter said as she got him a plate and started to put his breakfast on it.

"That won't be a problem," Sirius said before he started to shovel the food into his mouth.

James and Mrs. Potter watched him in disgust. When he was nearly finished, James said, "Sirius, mate, you're making me sick."

"Quit being such a woman, Potter," Sirius smirked at his friend after he finished his breakfast. James punched him on the shoulder.

Five minutes later, they were in the car and heading to the train station. "Are you nervous about seeing Evans?" Sirius asked.

"No," James lied. "Why would I be?"

"Oh, I don't know, because you haven't seen her in so long," Sirius smirked. He knew James was nervous, no matter what he said. He had known James for so long that he was able to tell when he was nervous.

"I'm mad at her, remember?" James said, hoping Sirius would just drop it.

Sirius snorted at that. "You know you're going to forget what you were mad about as soon as you see her." James sighed; he knew that Sirius was right. "Because you _looove_ her," Sirius added, smirking.

"I do not love her," James said, sounding annoyed.

"Don't deny it, Jamie," Sirius grinned. He was pushing James's buttons and he knew it.

"Don't call me that," James said menacingly. "And I don't. How can I love her if I've never had a proper conversation with her?"

"You have conversations with her all the time!"

"Me annoying her and her yelling at me does not count as a conversation," James said, turning to the window.

"But you've had actual conversations with her before," Sirius said. He felt bad seeing his friend so upset over a girl and he was kicking himself for bringing her up in the first place.

"When?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "Well, you guys talked in second year, didn't you?"

James smiled at the memory. He had been partners with Lily in Potions for most of that year. "Yeah, but that was before she hated me. So it doesn't count." James turned to look out the window and sighed. His thoughts drifted back to a certain redhead who was sure to pretend he didn't exist this year.

An hour later, they were at King's Cross. "I can't believe we're here a half hour early!" Sirius complained. "I bet we've even beaten Moony here."

James laughed as they wheeled their trunks into the train station. "No, I think he always gets here at least an hour before eleven."

"Nutter," Sirius muttered. They crossed the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ and then said their goodbyes to Mr. and Mrs. Potter.

"There she is," Sirius said, gesturing to Lily. She was standing by the train with Emily and Remus. James couldn't help but feel jealous when she laughed at something Remus had said. "Are you ready?"

James smirked at his best friend. "Honestly Padfoot, you don't have to baby me. Of course I'm ready."

Sirius grinned back at James before they started towards them. "Oy! Moony!" Sirius called out. Remus smiled when he saw his two friends while Lily visibly groaned. She turned and said something to Emily when James and Sirius walked over. James stared at her back. Sirius had been right, all his anger had disappeared the second he saw her. He completely tuned out Sirius and Remus, watching Lily as she talked and laughed with Emily. Sirius turned to James after Remus had left for the prefect's compartment and saw that he was staring at Evans with a glazed expression. "Prongs?" he said. When James didn't answer, he grabbed his shoulder and shook it. "Prongs!"

"What?" James said, snapping out of his trance.

"Why don't you just go talk to her?" Sirius said feeling slightly frustrated.

"She'll hit me! Or worse, kill me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes at James. "You're acting like a prat. Let's go," he said and he dragged James over to where they were standing.

"Hey Sully!" Sirius said rather obnoxiously, interrupting Emily.

Emily closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead as if she had a throbbing headache. "Please tell me he did not just call me Sully," she muttered.

"Why can't I call you Sully?" Sirius asked, pretending to be offended.

"Listen Black, if you want to have kids someday, you will never call me Sully again," Emily said menacingly.

"Oooh," Sirius said sarcastically, "I feel so threatened. Besides, I don't want to have kids, Sully."

"Five days away from you was definitely not enough," Emily said, scowling at Sirius. "I don't think anyone would blame me if I killed you. I can't believe the Potters were able to put with you all summer."

"You spent the whole summer at the Potters?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. I'm living there now, actually," Sirius said.

"Why?" Lily asked, shooting a look at Emily. She had failed to mention that the whole summer.

"Got into a fight with my mum. You know how she gets when she's angry. Actually, you don't, which you should thank Merlin for. But we got in to a row right in front of the whole family. I told her I was leaving and she told me, '_Sirius Orion Black, if you leave the house right now you will be dead to us!'_" Sirius frowned, doing a pretty good impression of his mother. "So I left. She probably took me off the family tree that night too."

Lily looked sympathetic. Even though she never particularly liked Sirius, probably because he was James's best friend, she felt bad for him all the same. Emily, however, was in hysterics. "Your middle name is Orion!" she said between laughs.

"Yeah," Sirius said, eyeing her as if she were insane.

"That means your initials are S.O.B.," she said, still laughing.

Sirius frowned at this, "Yes, Sullivan, and I've heard it all before."

"What!" Lily said to James in frustration. James had been staring at her since he had come over and she was getting very annoyed with it. Emily and Sirius stopped talking and watched them in interest.

"Err…" James mumbled. "How was your summer?"

Lily stared at him as if she couldn't believe he was asking her that. Once she got over her shock, she said scathingly, "Well, the second half of it was great because this annoying berk finally got the hint and stopped owling me!" With that, she grabbed her trunk and stormed onto the Hogwarts Express.

"Well," Sirius said, staring at the spot where Lily had been standing, "That went well."

James sighed and started ruffling his hair. "At least she talked to me."

Emily looked at James as if he needed to be carted off to St. Mungo's. "Are you saying that you'd rather her insult you than not talk to you at all?"

"Yeah," James said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's pathetic," Emily laughed. She grabbed her trunk and went to find Alice and Madison, still laughing.

"Don't worry, Prongs," Sirius said as he patted James on the back. "This is your year."

-----

"I'm so glad we're going back," Alice said after they had been on the train for a few hours. She was eating a box of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavored Beans while watching Emily and Madison play a game of wizard's chess.

"Are you ill?" Emily asked as she watched one her knights smash Madison's pawn.

"What do you mean?" Alice said, sounding offended.

"Well, we're starting our N.E.W.T. classes this year. Are you saying you're glad to be going back to incredibly hard classes, mountains of homework, the Slytherins and those bloody Marauders?" Emily asked.

Madison snorted. "No, she's saying she's glad she can see Frank everyday now."

"So what if I am?" Alice laughed.

"Has he asked you out yet?" Madison asked.

"No," Alice sighed. "I don't know if he's going to."

"Oh he will," Emily said confidently. "Trust me."

Alice whipped around and stared at Emily in shock. "How do you know?"

Emily laughed. "Don't have a coronary, Smith. I'm just saying that he better ask you out after the way he blabbed on about you all summer or I will kill him."

Alice contemplated this for a minute before saying, "So you don't know? You're just assuming he's going to ask me out?"

Emily raised an eyebrow at Alice. "So?"

Alice opened her mouth to say something when Lily stormed into the compartment and slammed the door behind her. "I hate James bloody Potter!"

"Why?" Madison asked. She grabbed one of Alice's every-flavored beans and threw it in her mouth. She promptly spit it back out and muttered, "Eww… ear wax."

"We haven't even been on this train for three hours and I've had to tell him off twice now for tormenting Snape!" Lily sighed as she sat down next to Alice. "You'd think he'd at least wait until we got to Hogwarts but of bloody course not! Remus and I caught him and his idiot friends in Snape's compartment and he tries to tell me that Snape started it! And then not even fifteen minutes later, he has Severus hanging upside down in the air in the middle of the corridor! I can't believe I have to put up with him for two more bloody years!"

"I'm sure you'll survive," Alice smirked.

"I'm sure I will have thrown myself off the Astronomy tower by Halloween!" Lily snapped.

"Don't be so dramatic," Emily said, picking up a chocolate frog. "Maybe he'll finally get over you this year."

"Or maybe you'll finally give in to him," Madison smiled, wiggling her eyebrows at Lily.

Lily looked at Madison in shock, speechless. "I think I'm going to be sick," she said, her facing turning green. She got up and ran from the compartment.

Emily laughed while Alice scowled. "Really Madison," Alice said, "You only said that to upset her."

"What?" Madison asked, trying to look innocent. "You know it's going to happen eventually, Alice."

"Yes but you shouldn't say anything about it to Lily!" Alice said, trying hard not to smile now. "She might throw _Hogwarts, A History_ at us again!"

Emily snorted at that, "She wouldn't be able to throw it very far. Just keep your distance when she's reading it."

A few minutes later, Lily walked into the compartment, looking paler than usual. "If any of you bring up what Madison said, I will kill all three of you," Lily threatened.

"How frightening," Emily said sarcastically.

Lily glared at her for a moment before smiling evilly. "Why didn't you tell us that Black was living up the street from you?"

Emily shifted uncomfortably. "I could have sworn that I mentioned it in one of my letters."

"You didn't," Alice said, staring at Emily.

"Because she was enjoying it too much," Madison grinned mischievously.

"You told me you didn't read that!" Emily said, her eyes wide in shock and horror.

"I lied," Madison said simply.

"I told you to burn it!" Emily said frantically. She looked at Madison's grin and groaned. "Oh no, you brought it here didn't you?" She stood up on her seat and opened Madison's trunk. "Where is it?"

"Hey!" Madison said, pulling Emily down and then getting up to close her trunk.

"Er… What are you guys talking about?" Lily asked feeling very confused.

"This rather interesting letter that Emily sent me about, oh, three weeks ago," Madison said, grinning mischievously.

"I was drunk! Didn't know what I was saying! Didn't mean any of it!" Emily said, sounding more and more panicked as she sat down across from Madison. "I don't even remember what I said!"

"Then why are you so adamant that Madison burns it?" Lily asked skeptically.

"And who were you getting drunk with?" Alice asked.

Emily smiled at this. "Well, the Marauders, Matt and I got into the Potter's liquor cabinet one night when our parents went out. And then I sent Madison a letter when I was nice and sloshed."

"And the only thing more amusing than what she says is her atrocious spelling," Madison says. She pulled a piece of parchment out of her back pocket and smiled. Emily got up and attempted to launch herself at Madison, knocking the chessboard over in the process.

Madison jumped up onto the seat and held the letter over her head. "Help me!" she hissed at Lily and Alice, who were watching the scene in amusement.

Lily grabbed Emily by the arm and forced her to sit down. As soon as she let go, Emily was up again and trying to get at the letter. After a few minutes of scuffling and a lot of screaming, Lily was able to force Emily back into her seat. She sat on her to stop her from getting up again. "Merlin," Lily said, breathing heavily. "I really don't think that letter is worth all this."

"Believe me, it is," Madison grinned. She opened it up and cleared her throat.

"Are you sure it's for you?" Alice asked, trying hard not to laugh. "It's addressed to someone named Mason."

"Oh that's just her horrible drunken spelling," Madison said off-handedly. She held the letter out in front of her and started to read it, "'Dear Madison, Tonight I have discovered the wonders of fire whiskey.' Blah blah blah, she rambles on about how much she had to drink. Ah, here we are. 'I had this epiphany tonight and I wanted to tell someone so I decided to tell you, since you are such a good friend.'"

"Are you sure that says friend? It looks more like fries," Alice said, reading the letter over Madison's shoulder. Her eyes scanned the rest of it and she gasped. "Does that say what I think it says?"

"What? What does it say?" Lily asked. She didn't like being kept in the dark. "Are you even listening to what you're saying?" Emily had been muttering threats at the three of them and had just said something involving some scissors and a knee-reversing hex.

"'I think I like Sirius,' Madison continued. Lily's mouth fell open in shock. "'Actually, I'm pretty sure I do like him. A lot.'"

"I'm going to kill you. All three of you," Emily muttered at the same time Madison was reading the letter.

"'-My stomach does these weird flip-flops whenever I'm around him-'"

"-I am going to rip you limb from limb-'"

"'-and I get all tense and awkward like I'm some kind of eleven year old. But-'"

"-and then I'm going to chop up your dead bodies-"

"'-I can't like Sirius. I mean, he's Sirius, the arrogant little berk who only thinks girls are good for shagging. All I know is-'"

"-into little, tiny pieces and then-"

"'-that the whole time I was on that awful date with Davey, I was wishing I was with Sirius-'"

"-I'm going to throw your remains into a stew that-"

"'-and I don't mean I wish I was at the quidditch match with Sirius. I mean-'"

"-I will then feed to all the incoming first years as a warning-"

"'-I wish he was the one I was out on the date with.'"

"-that you don't betray your friends like you three are right now." Lily got up and turned to look at Emily. Her eyes were wide with shock. "I was smashed. I didn't mean any of it," Emily lied, blushing furiously.

"Then why are you blushing?" Lily asked, sounding very accusing.

Emily bit her lip and looked down at the floor, as if she were willing herself to stop blushing. "I'm not," she muttered.

"You definitely are," Madison smirked.

Emily moved to the seat near the window and looked out of it, determinedly ignoring them. "Aww, don't pout Emily," Alice smirked. "We knew it was going to happen eventually."

-----

Emily ignored the three girls the rest of the train ride. When they got to the Hogsmeade platform, she turned to them and smiled, "I swear, whenever I step onto this platform it feels like I'm finally home."

Lily smiled at this. "I know how you feel."

"Speaking to us again then, eh?" Madison smirked at Emily.

"Shut it," Emily grinned. "Or I'll go back to giving you the silent treatment."

"Promise?" Madison asked.

Emily pretended to be shocked. She shoved her, accidentally knocking her into one of the new first years, who fell over. "I'm so sorry!" she said to the first year, and she and Madison grabbed him by his arms and lifted him up. "Are you alright?"

The little boy looked at the two girls, a look of fear on his face. He turned and quickly walked towards Hagrid, who was calling for all the first years to follow him. The two of them started to crack up while Lily scowled. "Oh, good job you two," she said. "Like he wasn't scared enough already."

"I didn't mean to," Emily said, still laughing.

"I'm impressed, Sullivan," Sirius said as he and the Marauders came up behind them. "We just got here five minutes ago and you're already scaring the first years. That has to be a new record."

"Shut up," Emily said coldly before turning back to Alice and Madison, who was smirking. "Don't say a word," she muttered darkly. Madison continued smirking as they walked off the platform towards the horseless carriages that would take them the rest of the way to Hogwarts.

"Save a spot in the carriage for me!" Lily called to them.

"Don't worry, Evans, I will," James called back to her, grinning. She shot him a look of disgust before turning around and trying to make sure all the first years went to Hagrid.

"That was a bit cold," Alice said as they walked towards the carriages.

"What was?" Emily asked, still sounding a bit angry.

"You know what she meant," Madison said as they reached a carriage and stood outside of it. "Black's still probably scratching his head, wondering what he did to deserve that. I mean, you shouldn't act like a complete wench to him just because you li-"

"I don't," Emily cut her off. "I don't, ok? So just drop it."

"Stop denying it!" Madison said, looking amused. She opened her mouth to say something else when Alice interrupted her.

"Leave her alone," she muttered. She knew Madison was right but she could also tell that Emily was getting very angry. She saw James walking up to their carriage and elbowed Emily in the side, pointing him out to her.

"Oh no," Emily groaned. "I'm not really in the mood for this." The three girls stood together, in front of the door to their carriage.

"Excuse me, ladies," James said, grinning at them.

"I don't think so, Potter," Madison said.

James pouted, "Aw, why not?"

"Because Lily would murder us," Alice said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But there aren't that many left," he said.

"Then walk," Emily said, trying not to laugh. "Why aren't you sitting with the other Marauders?"

His face darkened. "They decided to prank me and threw me out of the carriage right before it took off."

"That's too bad," Madison said, not sounding sympathetic at all. "Beat it."

James glared at them and then said, "I hope you understand that this means war."

"We're scared," Emily said sarcastically. "Terribly frightened. I don't think we'll be able to fall asleep tonight, really."

James gave her a derisive smile before stalking off. "What a wanker," Madison muttered.

A couple minutes later, Lily showed up looking slightly agitated. "I swear the new first years are deaf. They wonder around the platform and then swear they didn't hear Hagrid shouting for them."

Madison laughed at that as she climbed into the carriage. "I love new first years, they're so funny. The first few weeks they're always so dumbfounded and amazed."

Lily laughed. "Yeah, well, you can't really blame them." She followed Emily and Alice into the carriage and then closed the door behind her. Right before the carriage started to move, the door flew open and James jumped in.

"Hello ladies," he grinned.

"Are you serious?" she asked, sounding very annoyed. "What the bloody hell are you doing, Potter?"

"There was only one other carriage, and I wasn't going to ride with Snape."

"I don't care!" Lily shouted. "Walk to the castle!"

"I'll miss the feast," James said, sounding as if he thought Lily was nutty.

"Get out or I'll throw you out," Lily said menacingly.

"You're going to throw me out of a moving carriage?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lily glared at him and James smirked. "Whatever," she mumbled before sitting back in her seat. Emily rolled her eyes at this and Madison and Alice looked as if they thought a bomb would go off soon. They rode the rest of the way in a tense silence.

When they got to the castle, Lily was the first one out of the carriage. The other Marauders were waiting on the stairs and they started to laugh hysterically when they saw James leave after her, looking disgruntled. "How'd that go, mate?" Sirius asked when James walked over to them.

"Absolutely awful," James said. "She ignored me the whole time. And if you ever do that again, Padfoot, I will murder you in your sleep."

"This year should be interesting," Remus said skeptically.

"Oh yeah, real bloody interesting," James raged as they walked into the castle. "She almost threw me out of a moving carriage. Let's go eat, I'm starving."

"You know, Prongs," Peter said, trying hard not to laugh, "I think I'll be amazed if you make it through this year alive."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "So will I, Wormtail."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this fiction.

A/N: I'm sorry again about that. I got really busy with school and then I spent my whole summer down in Florida without the internet. I actually just got home. It was awful but I was actually able to write a lot while I was down there. Instead of posting it all at once, I'm going to try and get back into a regular updating pattern haha :) I'll post the next chapter in a couple days. Please review! And thank you to –Scp- (Yeah, they're in their sixth year now), The all mighty and powerful m, Bogloshi and SlightlyStoopid for reviewing the last chapter:)

**Chapter 8**

Lily woke up the next day and smiled. The first day of classes was one of her favorite days of the year. It was also the only day that she didn't have to drag her three friends out of bed in the morning. She walked into the bathroom and smiled at Madison, Gwenog and Emily who were all brushing their teeth, looking extremely tired. "Good morning," Lily said cheerfully. Emily glared at her and Gwenog mumbled something that Lily couldn't quite hear, but she was sure it was "good morning, my arse."

"Lily," Madison sighed exasperatedly, "it is too early to be happy."

"I didn't know there was a rule that you could only be happy after a set time," Lily said, trying not to grin.

"There is," Emily said. "And that set time is ten o'clock." She put her toothbrush down and walked out of the bathroom.

Lily tried not to laugh at that. "Don't worry about it, Lily," Samantha smiled as she walked into the bathroom and started to wash her face. "They're just not morning people like us."

"You've got that right," Madison said as she finished brushing her teeth. She walked out of the bathroom.

"I don't know," Lily said. "I mean, I think Alice is a morning person sometimes."

"I am not!" Alice called from the other room.

Lily laughed and shook her head at that. She walked back into the dorm room and started to put on her Hogwarts uniform. "Then what are you exactly, Alice? I mean, you're definitely not a night person since you're in bed by nine every night."

Alice looked at Lily with a confused expression on her face. "Why?"

"I'm just curious," Lily said.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Emily asked Lily accusingly.

"Since when is being in a good mood a bad thing?" Lily asked. She might have been insulted if her friends weren't always like this in the morning.

"It's not," Alice, shooting a warning glare at Emily. Emily just rolled her eyes and pulled her vest over her head.

They finished getting dressed in silence. Once they were done, the Gryffindor girls made their way to the Great Hall together. Lily led Alice, Madison and Emily to the far end of the Gryffindor table, ignoring James' desperate pleas to get her attention, because she knew the Marauders wouldn't want to be seated that closely to the teachers.

"I wonder if the food's alright to eat?" Alice said, looking down suspiciously at the eggs in front of her.

Madison glanced down the table to where the Marauders were eating their breakfast and shrugged. "They're eating it. That has to mean something, right?"

"They also ate the belching powder," Lily said darkly. At that moment, hundreds of owls flew into the Great Hall, delivering the post. Even now, Lily still felt a little amazed as she watched them all flying down to their owners with letters and small parcels. Professor McGonagall appeared behind Emily to give her her schedule. Because Emily had refused to tell Lily what she had gotten on her O.W.L.s, Lily tried listening in to their conversation. She heard McGonagall mention an A in Transfiguration before Alice elbowed her in the side. "What?"

"Quit being so nosy," Alice laughed.

"I'm not being nosy!" Lily whispered, blushing. "I just want to know what her O.W.L.s were."

Professor McGonagall moved on to Madison and Emily turned to Lily and said, "I got five O.W.L.s. Are you happy now?"

"Oh," Lily said, looking down at her plate. "I'm sorry." She knew that Emily was having trouble in a couple subjects but she didn't know that she was having that much trouble.

Emily sighed and said, "It's alright." Lily bit her lip, trying to stop herself from saying anything. "Go on, Evans. Lecture me," Emily laughed. "I know you want to."

"Well, it's just if you had spent less time playing Quidditch and more time studying last year, I'm sure you would have gotten more O.W.L.s," Lily said, trying hard not to sound like she was nagging.

"I know," Emily sighed. "But –"

Lily interrupted her. "I know you want to be a professional Quidditch player but that's not very realistic now, is it? I mean, you're ace at Quidditch but I've looked it up and in the last ten years, the English Quidditch League has only recruited twenty people from Hogwarts and those aren't very good odds, are they?" Emily started to laugh at her. "What's so funny?"

"You sound just like McGonagall did when I met with her last year," Emily said.

Lily laughed at that. "Miss Evans," Professor McGonagall said from behind her. She looked over her notes and said, "Charms, Defense Against The Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Ruins, Transfiguration, Herbology, and Potions… all fine."

Lily smiled at her. "Thanks Professor."

"I better go," Madison said as she stood up and grabbed her bag. "I've got Divinations in the North Tower."

They all said goodbye to her and then Lily asked, "What do you guys have first?"

"I've got a break first," Emily said.

"Arithmancy," Alice said as she checked her schedule. "Are you still taking that class?"

"Yeah," Lily said. She got up from the table. "But I'm going to go early to talk to the professor."

"On the first day?" Emily asked. "Why?"

"Well, she's the new professor. I think her name was Professor Vector." Lily started to blush, "I wanted to ask her what she planned on covering in her N.E.W.T. classes."

Emily grinned, "Lily, you're going to scare her! She'll have quit before she even got a chance to teach because of you."

Lily smiled. "I'm not going to interrogate her. I'm just going to ask her a few questions." She said goodbye to Emily and Alice and then walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring James Potter's "All right, Evans?" as she walked by him.

Emily laughed and said, "That poor woman's going to think she's gone back in time to the Spanish Inquisition."

Alice laughed and then said, "What are you going to do for your free period?"

"I don't know. I think I might go down and book the Quidditch pitch for early try-outs." Emily groaned when she saw Sirius and James walking toward them.

"I think that's my cue to leave," Alice said. She got her bag and said a quick goodbye to Emily before leaving the Great Hall.

"Emily," James said as he sat down next to her looking very serious. "We need to talk to you."

"About what?" Emily said, feeling very apprehensive.

"Well," Sirius said, sounding as if he was about to tell her that one of her relatives had died, "we were talking earlier about our chances at the Quidditch Cup this year."

"We really need to win it this year, Emily. I don't think I could stand another upset," James said, sounding pained. Gryffindor had made it to the championship game twice in the last three years and lost both times by less than fifty points.

"I know," Emily sighed. "And we need to replace Michael and Fabian. I've been trying to scout the younger Gryffindors but they all look hopeless."

"Look," James said, "we think you should have try-outs as soon as possible."

"Wait," Sirius grinned. "You've been scouting the second years?"

"And third and fourth years," Emily said, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. "I'm going to go and reserve the pitch right now."

"On what exactly?" Sirius said, following her as she left the Great Hall. "How they eat their eggs?"

"Yes, Black," Emily said sarcastically. "How they eat their eggs, how they hold their silverware and if they can go more than two steps without falling."

"No really, what have you been looking for?" Sirius smirked. "Do they get points for being able to breath and walk at the same time?"

Emily ignored him and said to James, "Did you see that move that the Ballycastle Bats used in their last match against the Tornadoes?"

James thought for a moment and said, "Which?"

They continued talking about quidditch moves they had seen during professional games and who on their team they thought could do the move until they got down to pitch. Emily walked through the changing rooms to Madam Hooch's office, where there was a blank time sheet on her door. She picked it up and said, "I think the whole team should be there, that way we can see who fits in easily with the team." Emily wrote something down on the sheet and said, "Try-outs are Saturday after lunch. Tell the others if you see them, ok?"

"They can't be Saturday afternoon!" Sirius said.

"Why not?" Emily asked, confused.

"I have a date," he said plainly.

"Already?" James asked sounding impressed. "It's the first day!"

"Are you serious?" Emily said, annoyed. "You're telling me that I have to cancel try-outs because you have a _date_?"

"Yes, I am Sirius," he grinned. Emily rolled her eyes at him and started walking out of the changing rooms. "You don't understand!" Sirius said, following her out. "It's with Maria Jones!" Maria Jones was a seventh year Hufflepuff that was easily the best-looking girl in school. Sirius had been trying to get her to go out with him since fourth year but she had always turned him down.

"I wouldn't care if it was with Merlin himself!" Emily said, turning around to face Sirius and looking angry. "Cancel it!" She whipped around and hurried up the grounds to the castle.

"But it's Maria Jones!" Sirius said as he watched her walk away. He turned to James and said, "Prongs, back me up here!"

"Sorry, Padfoot," James said, "Quidditch always comes before women, even Maria Jones."

"Traitor!" Sirius yelled jokingly. "I've been betrayed by my best mate!"

James laughed and pushed him. "Actually," he said as they started to follow Emily up to the castle. "I think it's you that's betrayed me. You're choosing a girl over quidditch? A girl?"

"Come on, James," Sirius said, "you're telling me that if you had to choose between a date with Evans and try-outs for the team, you would choose try-outs, which Sullivan could very easily do by herself?"

"That's different, though," James said. He didn't want to admit that Sirius had a point; James would gladly choose a date with Lily over quidditch try-outs.

"Aw, is it different because ickle Jamie has vewy deep feelings for ickle Lilykins?" Sirius said in a baby voice.

James laughed and shoved Sirius. "Shut it."

Sirius watched as Emily stormed up the castle and then got stopped by her brother and Frank Longbottom. "Do you think Sullivan would believe me if I told her I was too sick to go to try-outs?"

James shook his head. "She's not stupid, Sirius. And you better show at try-outs because I won't stop her from murdering you."

They were just walking by where Emily, her brother and Frank were standing when they heard Emily say, "Honestly, Longbottom, just grow a pair and ask her out already! You're acting like a silly girl!" She turned and walked quickly into the castle.

Sirius sniggered at this but stopped when he saw the look Matthew gave him. He tried to hide behind James when Matthew walked over to them a few seconds later. "Emilys's got a stick up her arse today so you might want to avoid her," he said. "Did you guys hear about try-outs? They're Saturday afternoon."

"Yeah, we know," James said. "Sirius is the one who put her in a bad mood."

"What'd you do?" Matthew asked. He wasn't surprised, Sirius had been pissing Emily off for ages.

"I told her I couldn't go to try-outs because I had a date," Sirius said.

"Really?" Matthew asked, looking at Sirius as if he thought he were a pod person. "I have to admit, I always figured James would be the nancy that would choose a girl over quidditch, not you."

"Hey!" James smiled. "I would never choose a girl over quidditch."

"No one understands!" Sirius grinned and gave a dramatic sigh. "It's with Maria Jones!"

"Oh," Matthew laughed. "You do realize that she's probably using you to get Amos Diggory jealous? I heard they had a pretty nasty fight last night and broke up." This time it was James and Sirius who were looking at Matthew as if he were the pod person. "What?"

"Since when did you listen to gossip?" James asked.

"Since I saw Diggory crying in the boys bathroom on the first floor." Matthew grinned.

"You're joking!" James said, looking as if both his birthday and Christmas had come early.

"I'm not," Matthew smiled. "Well, I've got to get to Charms, I'll see you guys later."

"Do you think Sullivan will let me skip try-outs if it means that Diggory is an emotional wreck?" Sirius asked as he and James headed down to the dungeons for Potions.

"Doubt it," James said. "I wish I was the one that had caught Diggory crying in the loo."

Once they got to the Potions dungeon, they saw that the classroom was already open and most of the students who made up their N.E.W.T. Potions class were already inside. They found Emily sitting by herself at a table near the back next to a cauldron full of what looked like boiling water. "Sullivan," Sirius said as he sat down at the table next to her. "I really think you need to reconsider."

"Why? So you can play a part in Maria's pathetic love triangle? I don't think so," Emily said as she got her potions book out of her bag.

"So you've heard about how Diggory is a wreck over this? Don't you think we should use this to our advantage?" Sirius asked.

"Use it to our advantage?" Emily asked, confused.

"Yeah! If Diggory's too busy crying over Maria, he'll play like shit and our game against Hufflepuff will be a sure win," Sirius said as if it made the most sense in the world.

Emily looked at him as if he had three heads. "And you really believe that?"

"Yeah, of course," Sirius said. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

"We don't play Hufflepuff until January! I really doubt you'll still be with her by then and if, by some kind of miracle, you are still dating her, Diggory will have gotten over it," Emily said, sounding more and more annoyed.

"What's that supposed to mean, '_if by some miracle I'm still dating her_'?" Sirius said, starting to get defensive.

"You honestly think you'll be able to stay in a relationship for five months? Really?" Emily asked.

"I'll do it for the team." Even Sirius knew that sounded weak.

"Oh," Emily said angrily, as if it all made sense now. "So you'll skip team try-outs to date a girl but you'll stay with a manipulative slag for five whole months, which would undoubtedly be a personal record for you, for the good of the team? You know, your priorities are really –"

"Guys," James interrupted. He had been really enjoying their row but he didn't think the rest of the class was. "Do you really think this is the place to yell about this?"

Emily blushed and pulled her scales and potion ingredients out of her bag in silence. "Look, Black," she muttered to him after a minute, staring resolutely at her scales. "Do what you want. But don't expect me to hold your spot on the team if you don't show up."

Sirius looked at her in shock. "That's low," he said quietly. She shrugged but refused to look at him.

James gaped at her when a flash of orange caught his eye. He looked up just in time to see Lily entering the room. He kicked Emily under the table. "Ow!" she said, glaring at him. "What was that for?"

"What is she doing?" he hissed. He watched in horror as she walked over to where Severus Snape was sitting alone and sat down across from him.

"I… I don't know," Emily said, looking very confused now. "Maybe she's feeling ill?"

"Well, go over there and find out," he hissed back at her. This time it was Emily that kicked him under the table. "Ow!" he said.

"Honestly?" Emily said, looking even angrier now. "You want me to ignore the fact that this is a classroom, and my father will kill me if I don't get better grades this year, so I can find out one of the many reasons why Lily doesn't want to sit with you?" James looked hurt at this. "Look, James, I'm –"

"It's ok," James said, opening his Potions book as Professor Slughorn, the potions master, walked to the front of the room. "Don't worry about it. I get it."

"Wow, Sullivan," Sirius muttered. "You're really hitting below the belt today."

Emily sighed and looked down at her textbook. She knew she had been very short with the both of them. She was trying desperately to get over Sirius, but it was so bloody hard when she couldn't get away from him.

------

Lily couldn't help rolling her eyes when she walked into the Potions classroom and saw Emily sitting with James and Sirius. She looked around the classroom, trying to find any other table she could sit at. There seemed to be a lot of students in this class, six Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs, five Slytherins and four Gryffindors. There were only two tables with open seats, and there was no way she was going to sit with James Potter so she walked confidently over to the table where Severus Snape was sitting alone and sat down.

Severus looked up at her looking both confused and irritated. "Are you lost?" he sneered.

"No," Lily said simply as she got her things out of her bag.

"I think you are. The Potter fan club is over there," Snape said, nodding towards the table where James, Sirius and Emily were sitting.

"Listen, Snape," Lily said coldly. "I'm pretty sure you're the only person that could understand the fact that I really don't want to spend anymore time with James Potter than I have to."

Snape looked like he was going respond but Professor Slughorn walked to the front of the room and asked them to get out their Potions books. Once the whole class had their copies of _Advanced Potion-Making_ on their tables, Slughorn started to ask the class about the potions that were scattered across the room. One of the Ravenclaws, Frederick Maloney, was practically jumping out of his seat, trying to answer every question.

"What a wanker," Snape muttered as Frederick recited exactly what the book said about Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world. "It's a pity he's so good at memorizing the books, now no one can see what a stupid mudblood he really is."

"Will you shut it?" Lily hissed at him, starting to regret her decision to sit at his table.

"What?" Snape said, smiling coldly. "Does that word offend you?"

"No, I just think it's pathetic that it's the best you can come up with," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"Ms. Evans, Mr. Snape," Professor Slughorn said as he came up behind them. "Just because you're the best students in the class doesn't mean you can hold social hour." Lily blushed at this and Snape smirked at the death glares he was getting from both Frederick and James. "I'm sure whatever you two need to say to each other can wait until after class. Now, as I was saying, I will be offering one tiny bottle of Felix Felicis to whoever can brew the best potion today. There's enough Felix in here for twelve hours' luck. And how will you be able to win this fabulous prize? Well, by turning to page ten of your books. We have about an hour left, which is enough time for you to make a decent attempt at the Draught of Living Death. I know it's more complex than anything you've attempted and I do not expect a perfect potion from anybody. However, the person who does best will win little Felix here!" At that, everyone drew their cauldrons toward them and started to make the potion.

Near the end of the class, Lily was stuck. She was at the point where the potion should be turning pink, but it stayed lilac. She glanced at Snape's potion and saw that it was the palest pink. Before she could stop herself, she said curiously, "How are you doing that?"

Snape looked as if he was having some sort of mental battle over whether or not to tell her. After a minute he muttered, "Add a clockwise stir after every seventh counterclockwise stir."

"But the book says to only stir counterclockwise," Lily said suspiciously, beginning to think that Snape was pulling her leg.

"'_But the book says'_" Snape said, imitating Lily. "Why did you even bother asking me then, mudblood?"

Lily clenched her jaw and resisted the urge to jump across the table and punch him right in the mouth. "Listen, Snivellus," she said evenly, trying to keep her temper under control, "if you ever call me that again, I will hex you into next year."

"Don't call me Snivellus," he said, sounding very angry.

"Then don't call me a mudblood," Lily said simply. She turned to her potion, counted the seven stirs and then added a clockwise stir. She gasped when her potion immediately turned the palest pink. She continued on with the potion, refusing to look up at Snape because she didn't see the smug look he was sure to be giving her.

"And… time's up!" Slughorn called. "Please stop stirring!" He started moving around the room, looking at the potions. The last table he reached was Lily and Snape's. "Oh, these are both superior potions! But there can only be one winner…" Slughorn trailed off. He walked around the table, sniffing at Snape's potion and then gave Lily's a quick stir. "Ms. Evans," Slughorn said, turning to her. "You are the winner. Here is your bottle of Felix Felicis."

Lily was shocked. She looked at Snape and saw him glaring at her. "Severus," she said, but he had already gathered up his things and was storming out of the classroom. She quickly got her things together and followed him out. "Snape!" she called out as she saw him hurrying up the corridor.

"Hey!" Emily called out. She caught up with Lily and said, "How did you do that? I stirred that bloody thing for fifteen minutes and I couldn't get it to turn pink."

Lily ignored Emily and yelled, "Snape!"

"Uh, what are you doing?" Emily asked.

"Look, I'll tell you later ok?" Lily said. "I'll meet you, Alice and Madison in the courtyard, ok?"

"Alright," Emily said, looking very confused.

Lily broke into a run as Snape disappeared down a corner. "Severus, will you please stop!"

"What?" Snape yelled as he turned around. "What do you want?"

"Here," she said, holding out the bottle of Felix Felicis. "It belongs to you. I wouldn't have won it if you didn't help me."

"I don't want it," Snape said, looking at the bottle as if it carried some grave disease.

"Oh, will you just take it?" Lily said, starting to get annoyed now. She was trying to nice and make things right and Snape was being very difficult.

He snatched it from her hand and said, "Fine."

"Thanks for helping me!" Lily called out after him as he turned and walked away. "Ass," she muttered under her breath. She quickly walked up to the courtyard where Emily, Alice and Madison were standing in a corner, complaining about the amount of homework they already had.

"Professor Vector gave us so much," Alice was saying. "A sixteen inch essay, two translations and we have to read five books by Wednesday."

"That's rough," Madison said. "Roberts didn't give us any in Divination."

"Hey," Emily said as she spotted Lily walking over to them. "What was that all about?"

"I wanted to give Snape the Felix Felicis," Lily said.

Emily gaped at her. "What? Why?"

"It belonged to him," Lily said. "His potion was better."

"So?" Emily said.

"So, it's the principle of the thing, Emily," Lily said. She knew her friends wouldn't understand.

"Wait, what's Felix Felicis?" Alice said, looking confused.

"It's liquid luck," Emily said. "You get lucky whenever you drink it." The girls got their bags and started walking to Defense Against The Dark Arts. "So how did you get the potion to turn pink?"

"I added a clockwise stir after every seven counterclockwise ones," Lily said.

"But the book said only counterclockwise ones," Emily said, looking confused.

"Yeah, I know," Lily smiled.

"How did you figure that out?"

"Snape told me," Lily said. Emily stopped walking and looked at her. Lily turned around and said, "What?"

"Snape told you?" Emily said, not quite understanding.

"Yeah," Lily said. "Snape told me. He was a right arse about it but he told me."

Madison turned to Emily and Alice and said, "Wajt. Snape's helping Lily out in class?" She shared a scared look with the other two girls. "I think the world might be ending."

-----

"Wait," Peter said. He was sitting with the other Marauders in an alcove in a deserted hallway. "So Lily actually sat with Snape?"

"Yeah," James said, sounding miserable. "She sat with him and then she talked to him all through class."

"Well, not all through class," Sirius said. "Slughorn told them off for talking at the beginning and they didn't say much after that."

"It doesn't matter," James said. "Snape has officially had a longer conversation with Lily Evans than I have in the past three years."

"It's not that bad," Remus said. "I mean, you don't know what they were saying. They could have been insulting each other."

"But she chased him, Moony! When class was over, he hurried out and she chased after him!" James said. "She'd never chase after me."

"Yeah, she's usually running away from you," Peter smirked. Sirius smacked the back of his head. "What? It's true."

"Thanks, Wormtail," James said. "That makes me feel so much better."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing that appears in this fiction. 

A/N: Thank you to Silver Whisper (I wasn't sure if you actually do want me to e-mail you when I update so I didn't, but if you were being serious then I will gladly e-mail you:) ), me (I especially want to thank you for your honest criticism of the story. I don't want to seem rude because I know there are a lot of stories like this one, but I enjoy them and that is why I am writing one. I'm sorry you thought it was boring.), DaniCalifornia76, and marauderbabe289 for reviewing! I really appreciate your reviews :). I think I am going to start updating this thing weekly, at least until I post all the chapters I wrote while I was in Florida. However, school is starting next week so I'm not sure if I will be posting the next chapter exactly one week from today. Anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter and please review!

**Chapter 9**

"Emily, you're muttering the spell under your breath!" Lily said, slightly exasperated. It was Friday night and she was in a deserted classroom near the Gryffindor common room, trying to help Emily with her nonverbal spells.

"Don't you think I know that?" Emily snapped. She sighed in frustration and said, "I'm sorry, Lily. I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"Like what?" Lily asked, although she wasn't too sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Quidditch try-outs," Emily said. Lily raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Quidditch try-outs?" Lily said. "And you expect me to believe that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Emily said, although she didn't sound very confident about it.

"Emily…" Lily trailed off, trying to think of a good way to word what she had to say. She sat on one of the desks and said, "You've seemed really tense all week and you've been snapping at everyone."

Emily sat on the desk next to Lily. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just quidditch and I've been having so much trouble in classes lately."

"And you're still not over Sirius," Lily added.

"What?" Emily said, her cheeks turning pink. "Of course, I am."

"Stop pretending that you don't like him, Emily," Lily said, trying hard not to sound stern. "You know I can tell when you're lying."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Emily muttered. They sat in silence for a few minutes and then Emily laughed bitterly and said, "Samantha asked me to hook her up with him."

Lily laughed and said, "What?"

"I know, I told her all she had to was walk around without a shirt on and she'd have his attention in no time," Emily laughed. "She seems to think she'll change him and he'll want to have a serious relationship with her."

"Are you going to do it?" Lily asked.

Emily shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Lily said.

"Maybe it will be the thing that will finally get him off my mind," Emily said softly after a couple minutes

"Doubt it," Lily muttered. She looked at her watch. "We'd better get going. It's almost curfew and I don't think we're going to get any more work done."

They got their stuff together and started the walk back to Gryffindor tower. "This night was such a waste," Emily said.

Lily laughed. "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you're not concentrating hard enough!"

Emily laughed and said, "Will you please stop nagging me, Evans?"

"Well, I guess I – POTTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Lily screamed. They had turned a corner to see James dangling a screaming second year Gryffindor in the air by his ankle while Sirius and Peter egged him on and Remus stood against the wall, staring resolutely at the floor.

"I'm teaching this little git a lesson, Evans," James smirked.

"What!" Lily said, her face starting to turn red. "Put him down!"

"I'll put him down when he learns not to mouth off," James said.

"Put him down right now!" Lily screeched.

James sighed. "Fine." He let the little second year fall in a heap on the floor. James turned and watched him run down the hallway towards The Fat Lady. "You better not do it again!" he yelled after him, smiling. The smile melted off his face when he turned around and saw the look that Lily was giving him.

"What is your problem!" she screamed. "You can't just hang someone upside down in the air because they weren't respecting you!"

"But he was mouthing off, and not just to me!" James said, messing up his hair.

"He was twelve, Potter! He's supposed to mouth off to people!" Lily said, getting angrier by the second. "But you are sixteen and aren't even mature enough to ignore a twelve year old!"

"I am not immature," James muttered.

Lily glared at him and then said, "I'm taking ten points from Gryffindor for this. And I'm going to tell McGonagall about this so you should expect to get a detention." She turned on her heel and marched in the opposite direction, towards McGonagall's office.

"Merlin," Sirius muttered. "What a fucking nag."

Emily punched Sirius's arm and said, "You're such an idiot!" Then she hurried toward the common room.

"What the hell is her problem?" Sirius asked, irritated.

"Who?" Peter asked, looking very confused.

"Sullivan! She's been a right bitch to me ever since we got back to school," Sirius said.

"Well, what did you do to her?" James asked.

"I didn't do anything!" Sirius said. James raised his eyebrows at this and Sirius said, "Really!"

James shrugged at this. "Maybe it's her time of the month."

Sirius looked at James in disgust. "I don't think I'm hungry anymore." The Marauders had been on their way down to the kitchens for a snack when they ran into Kennedy Williamson, a second year that had started mouthing off when Remus reminded him that he was out past the second year's curfew.

"I am," Peter said and they continued on their way back down to the kitchens.

After a couple minutes, James said, "So what are we going to do to get Snape back?"

"What are you getting him back for?" Remus asked. "He hasn't really done anything, has he?"

"He's been sitting with Lily all week in Potions," James muttered. Even he knew it sounded stupid but the fact that Lily was willing to sit with Snape instead of him was driving him crazy. He hadn't even worked in their last class; instead he spent the whole period glaring at Snape as he muttered things to Lily out of the corner of his mouth. Lily had even smiled at something Snape had said and it had been very hard for James not to stand up and hex Snape into next year.

Remus groaned. "James, it's not Snape's fault that Lily is sitting with him!"

"And smiling at him! And actually talking to him!" James reminded him.

"Right," Remus said, sounding as if he thought James was a crazy person. "That's not his fault."

"So?" Sirius chimed in. "It's not like we need a reason to prank him." They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they got to the bowl of fruit, Sirius tickled the pear and walked inside, asking Peter what he was in the mood for.

Remus grabbed James' arm and pulled him a little ways away from the door to the kitchen. "James, I don't think pranking Snape is a good idea."

James laughed at this. "You never think pranking anyone is a good idea, Moony, but that's never stopped us before."

"No, I don't think you understand," Remus said, looking entirely serious.

James was confused now. Even though Remus never approved of what they did to Snape, he had never actually said anything about it. "What do you mean?"

"Prongs…" Remus said, trailing off as he thought about what he should say. "I know that this thing with Lily isn't a game anymore."

"What?" James asked, even more confused now.

"You act like it's a big game, asking her out when you know she'll turn you down," Remus said softly. "I used to think you only did it because she was the only girl in the whole school that actually said no to you but… that's not the reason you're doing this anymore, is it?"

"Sure it is," James said, although he didn't even believe himself. He couldn't deny it anymore; he really did have strong feelings for Lily.

"Don't bother denying it, James," Remus said. "Look, pranking Snape is only going to backfire. Please believe me when I say this is not the way you'll get Lily Evans to go on a date with you."

"How do you know that?" James asked, feeling discouraged now. He had done everything he could think of to get Lily to date him and none of it seemed to work.

"You've been doing it for three years now and it hasn't worked yet, has it?" Remus said.

James sighed. "What should I do, then?" Remus shrugged and James said, "Nobody knows." They stood in a thoughtful silence for a few minutes. "I've got it!" James said, grinning proudly. "Emily knows what I could do, all I have to do is get her to help me!"

"I don't think Emily would-" Remus started to say but was interrupted by James.

"Right, she wouldn't do it willingly but I could always find a way to force her into helping me, couldn't I?" James said. Then he rushed into the kitchen, looking very pleased with himself.

"No, James that wasn't what I meant!" Remus said as he followed James into the kitchen.

James turned to Sirius and Peter already eating leftovers from dinner that night and said, "I've changed my mind. We're not going to prank Snape."

Peter looked at James in shock while Sirius said, "What? Why?"

"We're going to prank Emily instead," James said simply.

"Oh crap," Remus muttered.

Sirius's mouth fell open in shock. "Are you ill?" Peter demanded.

"She'll kill us!" Sirius said.

James grinned at this, "What, Padfoot, are you scared of her?"

"Of course not," Sirius said quickly. "But really, she'll wait until we're alone and then murder us!"

"I thought she was your friend," Peter said, looking both confused and alarmed.

"She is, but I need her help with something," James said.

"Why don't you just ask her?" Remus said, trying to undo the damage he had done.

"Moony, you know this is something I'm going to have to force her to help me with," James said.

Sirius eyes widened, he finally understood what was happening. "Please tell me that this has nothing to do with Lily Evans."

James grinned sheepishly. "Well, she's the only person that can help me."

"Help you what?" Peter asked, still not quite getting it.

Sirius smacked Peter on the back of the his head and said, "Honestly, Wormtail, don't be such an idiot. Only Sullivan can help him get a date with Evans."

"Oh," Peter said, looking worried. "I don't think that's a very good idea, Prongs."

"No, it's an awful idea," Remus chimed in.

"I'm not helping you," Sirius said.

"What!" James asked, shocked. Sirius had never turned a prank down before. "Why not?"

"Look James, as much as I love a good prank and as much as Emily deserves one right now, I am not going to help you force her into helping you with Evans," Sirius said. "It's just not right."

Remus laughed. "Wow, you know it's a bad idea when even Sirius thinks it's unethical."

"Well, fine," James said, looking put out. "Wormtail will help me then!"

"Sure I – " Peter said, before yelping in pain after Sirius had kicked his shin under the table.

"No, he won't," Sirius said menacingly.

"Well then Moony –"

"No, James, I'm not going to help you either," Remus said, interrupting James. "This is a very bad idea."

James looked at his three friends and then shrugged. "It's fine, I can carry on a pranking war all by myself." He then turned to a house elf and asked for some turkey left over from dinner.

"This is not good," Remus muttered. "This is not good at all."

------

"Davey Gudgeon got really cute over the summer," Madison said. She was eating her lunch in the Great Hall with Alice, Lily and Emily.

Lily made a face at this and Emily said, "Madison, we're going to pretend we didn't hear you say that, ok?"

"Why?" Madison asked.

"Because he's Davey Gudgeon!" Alice laughed. "He used to eat mud for fun."

"Yeah, he's not exactly the smartest," Lily said. "Do you remember when Black bet him ten galleons that he couldn't touch the Whomping Willow and he nearly lost an eye?"

"So what?" Madison smiled. "That doesn't change the fact that he is really good looking."

"Right," Emily said, rolling her eyes. "His chiseled jaw really makes you forget the fact that he doesn't know the difference between a kelpie and a kneazle."

"Well, when you put it that way it makes me wish I had told him no yesterday when he asked me out," Madison laughed.

"Oh Madison," Alice said. "You're not going to actually to go with him, are you?"

"Why not?" Madison asked.

"Because there are so many better guys here than Davey Gudgeon!" Alice said.

"Yeah, but she's already dated all of them," Emily grinned. Madison gasped in mock offense and lightly shoved Emily.

At that moment, Remus appeared behind Emily and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around, he said, "Emily, I'm so sorry." Then he turned around and continued out of the Great Hall.

Once he was gone, Madison laughed and said, "That was random."

Alice looked worried. "Do you think that means the marauders are going to do something to you?"

Emily frowned at this. "They better not. I have enough on my mind already."

"What about Remus?" Lily asked Madison, trying to sound nonchalant.

"What about him?" Madison said, looking confused.

"He's pretty cute, isn't he?" Lily said.

"Yeah," Madison said. She shared a confused glance with Alice and then said, "Are you trying to tell us you like Remus?"

"No!" Lily said. "I was just wondering if you did."

Madison thought about it for a moment and said, "I don't know. I mean, he's my friend."

"Since when have you been friends with Remus?" Emily asked.

"I've always been friends with Remus!" Madison said indignantly.

"You hardly ever talk to him," Emily laughed.

"That's not true! I talk to him all the time," Madison said.

"Sure you do," Emily smirked. "Besides, Remus is too nice. You'd ruin him."

Madison laughed. "Yeah, Remus is someone that you'd want to have a proper relationship with… when you're ready to have one."

Lily laughed, "Which will be never for you."

Madison grinned, "You guys are so mean. Aren't they mean, Alice?" When Alice didn't answer, the three girls turned to their quiet friend and noticed that she was staring at Frank Longbottom.

"Alice!" Lily screamed, shaking her shoulder and getting the attention of everyone in the Great Hall.

"What?" Alice said, looking at her friends as if she forgot they were there.

"Will you just ask him out already?" Madison asked.

"I can't just do that!" Alice said, horrified.

"Why not?" Emily asked. "It's not like he's going to say no."

"You don't know that!" Alice said.

"Believe me, I do," Emily smiled. "And if you're not going to ask him out then can you please stop ogling him? It's making me sick."

"Oh shut up," Alice grinned. She finished her lunch in silence and then said, "What are you guys doing this afternoon?"

"I have quidditch try-outs," Emily said.

"I'm going to spend some time with Davey," Madison said.

"Oh, so you're going to be eating mud together?" Lily smirked. Madison looked disgusted while Emily and Alice laughed.

"Do you think Frank will be at quidditch try-outs?" Alice asked Emily.

"Why would he be there? He's not on the team," Emily said, confused. Alice nodded toward the door to the entrance hall, where Frank was leaving with Matthew Sullivan, who was on the team. Emily laughed at this, "I don't know, Alice. Why don't you go follow him and see where he goes?"

"I hope you don't think that no one will be there watching your try-outs," Madison said.

"Why would people be there?" Emily said, sounding nervous now. "If the Slytherin team shows up, I swear I'll murder Williams." Benjy Williams was the captain and seeker of the Slytherin team.

"I don't mean the Slytherins," Madison said. "You know that Potter and Black's little fan clubs are going to be there." She eyed a group of fourth and fifth year Gryffindor girls who were sitting near the marauders.

"Oh, Merlin," Emily said. "I really hope they don't try out for the team again this year. Do you guys remember what happened last year?" Lily and Madison laughed at the memory of one of them flying right into the middle goal post. Emily got up and said, "Well, I'd better get down to the pitch. See you guys later."

"And I better go, I told Davey I'd meet him down by the lake," Madison smiled. She got up from the table and hurried out of the hall.

"She's crazy," Lily said, shaking her head.

Alice laughed and said, "Why did you bring up Remus? That was random."

"Come on, Alice," Lily said. "I know you're not blind. It's so obvious he likes her."

"Well, yeah but that doesn't mean that they should date," Alice said. Lily looked at her, confused and Alice sighed. "I love Madison to death but Emily was right, she'd ruin him."

"No she wouldn't," Lily said. "Well, not if she was ready to have actual relationship for once."

"Yeah, which won't happen until she is forty," Alice joked. "So what are you going to do this afternoon?"

"I don't know," Lily said. "I might read those books for Ancient Runes.'

"Lily!" Alice said, admonished. "You can't spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon cooped up in the library!"

"Well what do you have planned?" Lily asked.

"Well," Alice bit her lip. "I was thinking of going down to the quidditch pitch to see if Frank's there."

"You're not serious, are you?" Lily said, looking a little scared for her friend.

"Yes," Alice said, grinning sheepishly.

Lily laughed. "Well, have fun with that."

"Oh, please come with me," Alice said. "I'll look like a stalker if I go by myself."

"I'm pretty sure you'll look like a stalker either way," Lily said.

"Please Lily," Alice said pleadingly. "Come on, it will be fun."

"Watching Potter show off is not fun, Alice," Lily said. Alice pouted and Lily laughed, "Fine, Smith, but you owe me."

"Thank you!" Alice said, a huge smile on her face. She dragged Lily out of her seat and they made their way down to the quidditch pitch. Once they got down there and found a seat in the stands, a couple rows behind Frank Longbottom, they saw Emily yelling at a group of fourth year girls who apparently had gone to try out but didn't know one thing about quidditch and weren't listening to a word she said. "Glad to see Emily's not wasting any time yelling at the fan club," Alice smirked.

Lily laughed and then saw Potter standing without his shirt on with the rest of the team, a couple feet away from Emily. "Urgh," Lily said. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Be quiet, Evans," Alice said.

Lily sat in silence for a couple minutes, wishing she had brought her Ancient Runes books out with her. Alice was right, it was a beautiful afternoon but Lily didn't want to waste it on quidditch. She snorted when she saw Alice staring at the back of Frank's head. "Why don't you just ask him out?" Lily said.

"Ask who out?" Alice said, her back stiffening.

"Dumbledore," Lily said sarcastically. "Who do you think I'm talking about?"

"I don't know," Alice muttered. "I guess I'm just scared."

"Why?" Lily asked. "You know he'll say yes."

"No, Lily," Alice said, annoyed. "I don't know that. All I have to go on are assumptions and gossip."

"You're not stupid, Alice," Lily said. "You have to know he feels the same way or else you're just completely oblivious."

"Well, then, I guess I'm completely oblivious," Alice said.

Lily shook her and laid down across the bleacher she was sitting on. If she was going to waste the whole afternoon, the least she could do was try to get some sun.

After sitting in silence for a while, Alice turned to Lily and said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Lily said, sitting up.

"Why have you been sitting with Snape in potions?" Alice asked. Lily groaned. "I'm just curious. I mean, are you doing it to piss James off or are you actually becoming friends with him?"

"Well, the first time was only because I didn't want to sit with Potter and there weren't any other tables with room," Lily said. "But he's really not that bad. I mean, yeah, he's Snape but he's brilliant at potions and he has these great ideas, like that clockwise stir. I never would have figured that out by myself."

"And he actually shares them with you?" Alice said, dumbfounded. Snape had never been very discrete about his hatred for Lily.

"He calls me a few names while doing it but yeah, he does," Lily laughed. "I think he only does it to make Potter angry. You should have seen him in our last class, Alice. He sat there the whole period and just glared at us. He didn't even do any work!"

Alice laughed. "I'm surprised he hasn't done anything to Snape yet."

Lily's eyes narrowed. "He better not."

"He hasn't yet, has he?" Alice said. "Maybe he's changed."

Lily turned and watched as Potter stood with the rest of the quidditch team as Emily announced the two new members, Kennedy Williams and Brandon Whitehorn. Kennedy, the second year that James had been dangling in the hallway the previous night, was the new chaser while Brandon, a fourth year, was the new seeker. "I don't think so," Lily muttered as James turned and smacked Kennedy and Brandon on the back while screaming something about hazing.

Alice watched as Frank got up and started walking down to the teams changing room. She smacked Lily on the arm and said, "We should go down and talk to Emily."

"Why?" Lily asked. "You know, I really should go and start reading those books."

"Oh come on," Alice said as she dragged Lily down the stairs of the stadium. "We've got to make sure that this whole quidditch thing hasn't made her crazy. You know how she gets."

"Fine," Lily said. "But you know, Smith, I can walk by myself."

Alice ignored her and led the way to the door of the changing room, where Frank was waiting. "Oh hey, Alice," he said, blushing.

"Hey!" Alice said, pretending she didn't have any idea that he was going to be there. "That was insane, wasn't it?"

Frank laughed. "Yeah, I thought Emily was going to pop a blood vessel."

Alice giggled and then said, "How have you been?"

Lily rolled her eyes at this and tried her best to ignore the rest of their conversation. She leaned against the wall and nodded to some of players as they were coming out. Then Matthew Sullivan came out with James Potter and Sirius Black. "Oh no," Lily muttered.

"Evans," James grinned. "Where you waiting for me?"

"In your dreams, Potter," Lily said, glaring at him.

"Oh, you do more than that in my dreams, Evans," James smirked.

Lily narrowed her eyes in disgust and slapped him, "You're disgusting!" She turned around and stomped off.

"Nice going, James," Alice muttered as she rushed past him, hurrying after Lily.

"Yeah, nice job, James," Matthew grinned. "Frank was finally talking to Alice and you have to go and ruin it."

Matthew, Frank and Sirius started walking towards the castle while James stayed behind. When Sirius noticed James wasn't with them, and he turned around and said, "Aren't you coming, Prongs?"

"Nah," James said, leaning against the wall of the changing rooms. "You go ahead, I have to do something."

Sirius frowned. "You're not going to do that now, are you?"

"Yeah, the sooner the better," James grinned.

"Well, it's your funeral," Sirius said before turning around and running to catch up with Matthew and Frank.

-----

Emily was sitting on a bench in the changing room, tying her shoes when Gwenog sat down next to her. "I heard Samantha asked you for help with Black," Gwenog smiled.

Emily laughed. "Yeah. Although I don't see why she needs help. It's pretty easy to get Black's attention. All you have to do is own a pair of breasts."

"Well, of course you think that," Gwenog said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emily asked, not knowing if she should feel insulted or not.

"It means that you have Black's attention the second you walk in the room," Gwenog said.

"That's not true," Emily muttered.

"Yes it is," Gwenog laughed. "Well, are you going to help her?"

"I don't know," Emily sighed. "I want to but I feel like he's only going to hurt her in the end and I don't want to be responsible for that."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. She seems to think she can change him," Gwenog rolled her eyes. "It's going to backfire in her face." Emily nodded in agreement. "I don't know, I don't think she'll give up on it until he breaks her heart." The girls sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking. "She told me to pester you until you agreed to do it," Gwenog said, smirking.

Emily grinned. "Do you think I should?"

Gwenog thought for a minute and then said, "Yeah. I mean, unless you're morally against it or… you like him too."

"I do not like Black," Emily said quickly.

Gwenog stared at her for a moment and said, "Are you sure? I won't tell her if you do, if you're worried about that."

"Believe me, Jones, you'd know if I liked him because I would be checking myself into St. Mungo's," Emily lied.

Gwenog laughed at this and stood up. "So should I tell her you'll do it, then?"

"Yeah," Emily said, regretting it as soon as she said it.

"Alright," Gwenog smiled. She waved to Emily as she left the room.

Emily sighed and put her head in her hands, trying to figure out why she had let herself get talked into this mess. Suddenly, Kennedy Williams appeared out of the corner of the room and said, "That was a really dumb thing to do."

Emily looked up at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You helping that girl when you obviously fancy Black," he said.

"I do not!" Emily said, her face turning red. "Do you always hide in dark corners and listen to people's private conversations?"

"No!" he said. "I was just… admiring the changing room. I've never been back here before."

"You're such a bad liar," Emily smirked.

"So are you!" he retorted.

Emily rolled her eyes at this and said, "Were you hiding from Potter?"

Kennedy blushed and looked at the floor. "No," he muttered. "I'm not scared of him."

"You know, I could tell him to leave you alone," Emily said, trying to stop herself from sniggering.

"I don't need your help," Kennedy said, looking disgusted at the idea.

"Fine," Emily said tartly as she started to gather up the team's brooms. "Then I'll tell him to hex you every chance he gets."

Kennedy's face turned white. "You wouldn't actually do that, would you?"

Emily looked at him and said, "Not if you help me bring this stuff to the broom shed." She handed him the brooms and picked up the crate that held the four quidditch balls.

They walked out of the changing room and were stopped by James Potter. "Hey Emily," he said. "I have to ask you something."

"What?" Emily asked sounding exasperated.

"Oh, hey Williams," James said, noticing Kennedy was there for the first time. "Beat it."

Kennedy didn't need to be told twice. He dropped the brooms he was carrying and ran up the hill towards the castle. "James!" Emily said, reprovingly. "What did you do that for?"

"I told you, I have to ask you something in private," James said, picking up the brooms that Kennedy dropped.

Emily looked slightly scared when she said, "I don't think I want to hear it." She led the way to the broom shed. "Will you leave Williams alone? The poor kid is scared to death of you."

James face darkened. "Good. He should be after what he said to Remus last night."

"Well, I don't care what he said to Remus, he is your teammate now," Emily said, sounding a little like Lily. "You don't have to like him but you need to stop threatening him! He's going to play like shit if he keeps thinking you're going to kick his ass every chance you get."

"Fine," James said, looking disgruntled.

They reached the broom shed and put the brooms and crate in there. They started their walk up the hill towards the castle. "What did you want to ask me?" Emily said.

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me," James said, suddenly feeling like this wasn't such a great idea after all.

"Help you with what?" Emily asked, confused.

"Help me with Evans," James muttered.

"No," Emily said. "No. Definitely not."

"Why not?" James asked.

"Because I am not Jim Lange and this is not the bloody Dating Game!" Emily said.

"What the hell are you babbling about?" James said, stopping to look her.

Emily stopped and glared at him. "I am not going to help you! Lily would murder me if she ever found out!"

James sighed. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, Sullivan."

Her eyes widened in shock when she realized what he was going to. "James, you better not do anything stupid." As soon as she said that, James had her dangling in the air by her ankle. "James!" she screamed. "Put me down now!"

"Not unless you help me with Evans," he said.

"I am not going to help you!" she yelled. "Now put me down!"

James sighed. "Emily, I don't want to do this but I have to." Emily flailed around but stopped after a couple minutes. Her face was turning red as she sighed in defeat. "Well?" James asked. "Are you going to help me?"

"No!" Emily said.

"Well then, I guess you're going to have to stay up there forever," James said.

"You better hope I stay up here forever, Potter!" Emily yelled. "Because when I get down, I am going to murder you!"


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own anything. 

A/N: I'm sorry this is a few days late. Even though it was only the first week, I spent most of the weekend doing homework. It's crazy how much work I have this semester. I'm actually posting this in between classes, haha. So, thanks to well… nobody… since nobody reviewed the last chapter. Please review! I don't care if you hate it and wish I were dead, I'd like to know what you're thinking! I'll post the next chapter in a week or so.

**Chapter 10**

When James finally put Emily down, she had chased him up to the seventh floor and punched him mercilessly. After five minutes, she was caught by Filch and given a month of detention. Needless to say, he hadn't asked Emily to help him since then. It was the first week of October and his bruises were finally starting to heal. He was sitting in the Great Hall, eating breakfast and trying to think of a better way to proposition Emily when he got hit in the face with a piece of greasy bacon. "What the hell?" he cried out.

Peter was in hysterics. "He's still alive!" Sirius said, raising his arms in the air even though he had a fist full of bacon.

Remus looked disapproving but smiled all the same. "What were you so wrapped up in, Prongs?"

"Nothing," James muttered.

"Yeah, right," Sirius said while Peter kept laughing. "We've been trying to talk to you for five minutes."

"Yeah," Peter said, finally calming down. "That wasn't even the first piece of bacon that Padfoot threw at you."

"Well, I'm not surprised at that," James smirked. "He does have such terrible aim." Sirius took offense to that and chucked the rest of the bacon in his hand at James.

"What were you thinking about?" Remus asked.

"And if you say Evans, I will dump this whole jar of jam on your head," Sirius said.

"It wasn't about Evans," James said and Sirius seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "I was just trying to figure out how I could get Emily to help me." Sirius groaned at this.

"Well, you could always try to prank her again," Peter said.

"Yes, Wormtail, because that worked out so great last time," James said, lightly touching his blackened left eye.

"What you need to do is just let it go!" Sirius said. "I'm sure the second you bring it up to her again she's going to give you another black eye."

"Yeah," Remus said. "Maybe you should just try and move on from Evans."

"Merlin knows there are plenty of girls that would be more than willing to help you forget about her," Peter said, eyeing a group of girls sitting a few seats down from them.

James looked down at the girls and frowned. "I don't think so," James said. "They're all so desperate. It's very off-putting."

"Just give her a love potion and be done with it!" Sirius said, looking frustrated.

"Right," Remus said sarcastically, "Because that's not desperate at all."

James thought about it seriously for a moment and then said, "I could never give her a love potion. She'd probably castrate me the second it wore off."

"Her hatred for you is so strong that the love potion probably wouldn't affect her at all," Peter smirked.

"Once again, you're not helping at all, Wormtail," James said, looking grumpy.

Sirius looked very annoyed and said, "Prongs, the only way you're going to get Emily to help you is by blackmailing her."

Remus put his head in his hands and said, "Oh no."

James thought about this and then smiled and said, "I never would have thought of that."

"Yeah, but what would you use?" Peter asked thoughtfully. "I don't know her that well, but Emily always seemed to be very upfront about things."

Remus turned to his two friends and said, "No. You can't blackmail her. It's wrong on so many levels."

"You guys have to help me dig up dirt on her!" James said, ignoring Remus.

"No," Sirius said shortly, looking very pissed off. "I refuse to take any part in this."

"What's wrong with you?" James asked Sirius.

"Nothing," Sirius muttered.

"Emily's a sore subject for him," Peter sniggered. He stopped laughing when Sirius punched his shoulder.

"Why?" Remus asked, hoping to change the subject. He seemed to think that if they stopped talking about blackmail then James would forget about it.

Sirius sat there for a minute, looking very pissed off. Finally he said, "Because she's been such a wench since we got to school! And I didn't even do anything to her!"

"Are you sure you didn't?" James asked skeptically. He had noticed how rude Emily had been to Sirius the past month, but he was sure that Sirius had just forgotten what he had done to make her so angry.

Sirius rolled his eyes angrily at this. Without saying a word, he grabbed his school bag, got up from the table and stalked out of the Great Hall.

"Nice going, James," Peter said. James shrugged.

"Prongs," Remus said, "if Emily is this mad at Padfoot when he hasn't done anything, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to blackmail her."

James smiled and said, "Stop trying to talk me out of it, Moony. I'm going to do it, even if I have to do it by myself and that's final."

"Well, it's your face that will get punched," Remus sighed. "Don't you think you should go after him?"

James shook his head and said, "No. I'll let him calm down first."

"You mean take his anger out on some unsuspecting first year," Peter smirked. James smiled and Remus rolled his eyes.

After a couple minutes, James said goodbye to Peter and Remus and left the Great Hall. When he got down to the potions classroom, he found Sirius sitting at their table, acting like nothing had happened. "What do you think Slughorn will make us do today?" he asked James.

"I don't know," James said. "I hope it's easy though because I haven't really been able to keep up."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you spent more time paying attention to Slughorn than staring at Evans you wouldn't be so far behind."

James gasped. "This can't be happening. The one and only Sirius Black is lecturing me about paying attention in class. The world must be ending!"

Sirius eyes widened and he said, "Forget I said that."

"You can't take it back now!" James laughed. "You've already set things in motion! Thank you for ending all human life, Padfoot."

At that moment, Emily sat down across from them and said, "What are you two idiots laughing about?"

"Sirius is concerned about my schoolwork," James smirked.

Emily looked at Sirius as if he had three heads. "Are you ill?"

"No, just… concerned," Sirius said lamely.

"Right," Emily said skeptically.

James watched as Lily walked into the room and sat down at the table that she shared with Severus Snape. "Do you think if I do horribly in this class, Slughorn will make Evans tutor me?"

Sirius groaned and put his head on the desk. Emily rolled her eyes and said, "He could do that… or he could make Snivellus tutor you. Now that's something I'd like to see."

James shivered and said, "Ok. That was a bad idea."

Sirius looked up quickly and stared, wide eyed, from James to Emily. "How did you do that?" he finally said. "He never listens to me when I tell him that stalking Evans is a bad idea!"

"Maybe it's because I actually have more than half a brain," Emily muttered as she got her potions book out of her bag. Sirius narrowed his eyes at her but didn't say anything. After a few minutes of a tense silence, Emily said, "I'm going to up practices to twice a week."

"What?" James said. "Why?"

"Because the Slytherin match is in a month and I want to beat them," Emily said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sullivan, we could try desperately to lose and still beat Slytherin," Sirius said. "Have you seen their team this year? They're all a bunch of trolls."

"That doesn't matter, Black!" Emily said. "I care about the team's chances of winning this year and if you don't then you shouldn't bother coming to any more of the practices!"

"You know, I'm getting really sick of your attitude, Sullivan," Sirius said coldly.

"My attitude?" Emily said, practically yelling now. "You're the one who's been so flippant about the team!"

"This has nothing to do with quidditch," Sirius said, getting as loud as Emily. "Just admit it!"

"Uh guys," James said, noticing that they seemed to have the undivided attention of the entire class. "Don't you think this is something that should be discussed in private?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emily said, ignoring James.

"It means that you have been acting like a self-righteous bitch ever since we got to Hogwarts, long before the quidditch season even started!" Sirius yelled.

Emily opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she noticed that Professor Slughorn was standing over their table, looking both annoyed and amused. "Miss Sullivan, Mr.Black," he said calmly. "Will I need to separate you or will you be able to behave like mature adults so I can start my lesson?"

It was at that moment that Emily realized that the whole class had been watching her. She blushed a very deep shade of red and said, "Yes, sir." Sirius didn't say anything; he just slammed his book onto the table, determinedly ignoring Emily. Slughorn walked to the front of the room, announcing the potion that they would be making that day. James tuned him out, but instead of staring at Lily, he was looking back and forth between his two friends. He didn't understand what was going on with them, it almost reminded him of the way they had acted towards each other when they first met. He grinned at the memory; they had constantly fought with each other, each fight getting more malicious and hurtful than the last. But when they were the only two Gryffindors staying over Chirstmas break that year, something had happened. James still didn't know what it was; all he knew was that when he got back for the start of the term, they were friends. They started referring the fights between him and Lily and now that the roles were reversed, he saw how annoying it must have been for them. Whatever it was, he knew that Sirius was right; it had nothing to do with the quidditch team.

Halfway through the class, Emily looked up and saw that Sirius was looking anywhere but at her. "Black," she whispered. James looked up from his potion, getting ready to step in the middle of the argument that was sure to follow. But Sirius continued to stir his potion, ignoring Emily completely. "Sirius," she whispered again, and again he ignored her. Finally she rolled her eyes and said, "Look, I'm trying to apologize here but it's kind of hard to do while you're ignoring me."

That seemed to get his attention. He looked at her and said, "Well, go on."

Emily smiled and rolled her eyes. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"That didn't sound like an apology to me," Sirius said. "Did that sound like one to you, James?"

"Nope," James grinned.

Emily looked as if she regretted ever bringing it up. "Look, I'm sorry I've been a… what did you call me?"

"A self-righteous bitch," Sirius said.

"Right, that," Emily said. "I don't understand why I'm the one apologizing when you're the one who called me that."

Sirius smirked, "That was a pretty weak apology, Sullivan."

"Fine," Emily muttered, annoyed now. "Don't accept it then."

"I didn't say I wasn't accepting it," Sirius said. "I'm just saying you might want to work on that in the future."

Emily laughed at this and was shushed by Slughorn. James grinned and turned back to his potion, hoping that this meant that Emily and Sirius would go back to the way things where. When class was over, James packed up his things and started to leave with Sirius. They hadn't even gotten out the door of the classroom when Emily joined them. "Merlin, you two must be deaf," she said. "I kept telling you to wait for me."

"Actually, we've just had enough of you," Sirius smirked. "Why don't you get the hint?"

"Haha," Emily said sarcastically. "I need to talk to you about something, Black."

Sirius groaned and said, "We get it, ok? The quidditch team is very important to you and –"

"Actually," Emily interrupted him, "this isn't about quidditch."

"What is it then?" Sirius asked.

"Well, I was just wondering what you thought of Samantha Thompson," Emily said, looking as if even she knew how stupid she sounded.

James stopped walking at once and stared at Emily as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. "Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing."

Sirius ignored James and said, "Samantha Thompson? I don't know. I guess she's all right. Why?"

"Oh, no reason," Emily said weakly.

"You are, aren't you?" James said, very angry now.

"What are you talking about, Prongs?" Sirius asked, looking very confused.

James ignored Sirius and stared at Emily, looking as if he were about to murder her. "You'll help Samantha Thompson with Sirius but you won't help me with Lily? You don't even like Samantha Thompson!"

"Yes I do!" Emily said, looking offended. "I know I wasn't very fond of her before she's actually a very close friend now."

"Bollocks," James said, infuriated now. "Why won't you help me!"

"Because Lily hates you!" Emily said, sounding very exasperated with James. "And she would kill both of us if she ever found out! Sirius, on the other hand, would thank me for finding his next victim for him!"

James narrowed his eyes at Emily and said, "Unbelievable." He turned and stormed down the hallway and out of sight.

Sirius looked amused at all of this. "You have to admit, that was cold," he said.

"I know, but I can't help him with Lily! She would hate me for the rest of her life," Emily sighed. "I should go and make sure he's alright."

"No, he'd probably hurt you," Sirius said. "I'll go and calm him down."

"Wait," Emily said, grabbing his arm so he couldn't leave. "Samantha really likes you, ok? Can you just give her a chance?"

"Samantha Thompson…" Sirius rubbed his chin, thinking hard. "Which one was she again?" He laughed at Emily's look of disbelief and said, "I'm just joking. I'll think about it."

Emily bit her lip, looking worried. "I'm doing this against my better judgment, alright? So don't break her heart."

"I can't promise anything," Sirius said before running down the hallway after James.

"What am I doing?" Emily muttered to herself before turning and walking the other way towards Charms.

-----

Lily was sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall with Alice and Madison, finishing her dinner. Emily had just left with James Potter, claiming she was going to reserve the pitch twice a week for the next month but Lily was certain they just wanted to spy on the Slytherin team. She couldn't understand James Potter. According to Emily, James had been furious at her that morning for something but he had insisted on going down to the pitch with her. "So Madison," Lily said once she had finished dinner, "How's Davey?"

Madison shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Well, you are dating him, aren't you?" Alice asked.

"No," Madison said. "I dumped him two days ago."

"Why?" Lily asked. They got up from the table and started walking back to the Gryffindor common room.

"He was such an idiot," Madison said.

"Oh, it only took you this long to figure that out?" Alice smirked.

"No, I figured it out a long time ago," Madison laughed. "I just couldn't ignore it any longer."

Lily laughed and said, "Who's up next?"

"What do you mean?" Madison said, confused.

"I mean, who's your next victim?" Lily said.

"I don't know," Madison said thoughtfully. "I was actually thinking of staying single for a while."

Lily laughed so hard at this that she had to stop walking and lean against the banister of the stairway in the entrance hall. Madison scowled while Alice looked as if she didn't know if she should smile or not. At that moment, Frank Longbottom came up behind them and said, "Alice, can I talk to you?"

Alice's face went white, suddenly looking very nervous. "Sure," she said, standing in the middle of the staircase.

"In private," Frank said after a minute, when he realized that Alice wasn't going to move.

"Oh, right," Alice said, following him down the stairs.

Lily and Madison shared a knowing looked and giggled. "We'll see you later!" Lily called after Alice, who turned and glared at them. They giggled even more and continued their way to the common room.

"Do you think he's finally asking her out?" Lily asked.

"I hope so. I don't think I could take it any longer if he didn't," Madison said.

Lily laughed at this. It was true, the three of them were getting fed up with Alice's constant worrying over whether or not Frank would finally ask her out but none of them had the heart to tell her to stop talking about it. After a minute, Lily said, "So do you really think you're going to stay single?"

"Yeah," Madison shrugged. "I mean, why not try it? It's not like I'm going to swear off boys or anything, I'm just not going to let myself get tied down to one."

"Oh, so it's basically just an excuse to be the biggest slag in school," Lily joked.

Madison pushed her and said, "No. It's not an excuse, I'm just sick of boys thinking I am their property just because I like snogging them."

Lily laughed. "Well, you're going to realize that being single isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

Madison smiled and said, "Why are you still single if you hate it so much? I think you'd be surprised at how many guys like you."

"Because any guy I date would then have to deal with Potter," Lily said, annoyed. "You know what happened when I went on that date with Diggory last year."

"Well, you could always try to find a guy who wouldn't care about that," Madison suggested, although she knew it wouldn't work.

"Right," Lily said. "I'm pretty sure Snape's the only one person in this whole school that would be able to deal with that, and that's only because he'd want to piss Potter off as much as possible."

Madison laughed. "Right, and you couldn't date Snape."

"Why not?" Lily asked.

Madison stopped and looked at Lily as if she had just suggested they run around the school naked. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Well, not entirely," Lily smiled. "I just wanted to know your reasons."

"He's Snape," Madison said. "He hates you."

"No he doesn't," Lily said. "I don't think he does, anyways. He's been almost friendly the last couple weeks in Potions."

"Right," Madison said. "Besides, I think James would die if you ever dated Snape."

"All the more reason to do it," Lily muttered. They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and when they walked into the common room, they saw Samantha and Sirius snogging in an armchair by the fireplace. "Ew," Lily said as she walked by them to the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitory.

"They need to get a room," Madison muttered.

"Don't say that, Maddy!" Lily whispered. "They might get our room!" They grabbed their bags and went back down to the common room. They found a small table in the corner of the room and started to pull out their homework.

"Emily isn't going to be too happy when she sees that," Madison said.

"I don't know, she might be," Lily said, although she doubted it.

"Did she finally get over that idiot?" Madison asked, confused.

"I don't think so," Lily said. "She was helping Samantha get Black's attention."

"What!" Madison practically yelled. "Why would she do that?"

Lily shrugged. "She said she thought it would help her get over him."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Madison said, shaking her head.

"I know, I told her it would only make things worse but she didn't listen to me," Lily said.

Alice ran into the common room and over to where Lily and Madison were sitting with an excited grin on her face. "He asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him!" she said, sitting down.

"Really?" Lily asked. "That's great!"

"Yeah, it's about time," Madison smirked.

"I know," Alice said, sighing contentedly. She sat back in her chair and then shot up, looking nervous. "What am I going to wear? What if I make an idiot out of myself?"

"Alice, the Hogsmeade weekend isn't for three weeks! I'm sure you'll find something to wear by then," Madison said, trying hard not to laugh at her friend.

"And you're not going to do anything stupid!" Lily said, also holding in her laughter.

Alice looked a little more relaxed. "I wonder where he'll take me," she said.

"Probably Madam Puddifoot's," Madison muttered.

"Alice," Lily said gently, "you're not going to talk about anything else until the Hogsmeade weekend, are you?"

Alice grinned sheepishly. "I'll try not to do that."

"Thank Merlin," Madison muttered. Lily kicked her under the table.

"No, it's all right if you do," Lily said sweetly. "It's just that after a while, it gets a little…"

"I understand," Alice said. "Lily, do you think you could help me with the Transfiguration homework? I just can't seem to get it and I'm pretty sure McGonnagal is going to kick me out of the class."

Lily laughed. "She's not going to kick you out, Alice, she just said that she thinks you should get a tutor. And yes, I will help you with it." Alice smiled at her friend and ran upstairs to get her Transfiguration book.

"What did you kick me for?" Madison asked.

"Be nice to her! The last boyfriend she had was Eugene Ackerley in third year," Lily said, as if that explained everything.

-----

"Did you see Wilkes?" James said gleefully. "He could barely stay on his broom!" They were walking back to the Gryffindor common room after going down to book the quidditch pitch twice a week for practices. However they did have an ulterior motive, they wanted to spy on the Slytherin team as they practiced for the upcoming match. James was still angry with Emily, but had decided to go with her to try and see if he could dig up any dirt on her. Plus, he wanted to see how awful the Slytherin team was.

Emily laughed at this. "Williams looked like he was going to have a coronary."

"You can't tell me that you're still worried about the match now," James said. "They looked awful."

"Just because they had one bad practice doesn't mean we're going to beat them," Emily said. "They might be really good and we only just saw their one off day."

"Or maybe they're just bad," James smirked.

Emily smiled and said, "Yeah, or that."

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Then James said, "Emily, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Emily said, looking skeptical.

"Why is it that you'll help Thompson with Sirius but you won't even think about helping me?" James said.

"James," Emily sighed, trying to find the right words to say. "It's different with them."

"How?" James asked.

"Well, for example, Sirius doesn't get angry and start throwing books at the mere mention of Samantha," Emily said.

James winced. "Does Lily really do that?"

Emily nodded. "Sorry, mate."

"She really hates me, doesn't she?" James said feeling very dejected.

Emily frowned at this. "No," she said sympathetically, "she just hates the way you act." James seemed confused by this and stayed silent. "You really like her, don't you?"

"No," James said. Emily raised her eyebrow at him and he muttered, "Yes."

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. Emily told her the password and climbed in the portrait hole with James close behind her. Once they were inside the common room, they got a full view of Samantha Thompson sitting on Sirius's lap as they snogged. James smirked and said, "Disgusting, isn't it?" He turned to smile at Emily, but she wasn't there. He turned around just in time to see her hurrying out of the portrait hole. It was as if a switch had turned on in his head. He understood completely why Emily had been so rude to Sirius. He turned and chased after her. "Emily!" he called to her as she walked rather quickly down the hall.

"Go away!" she yelled, breaking into a run.

James was faster than her and he caught up to her in no time. He grabbed her arm and turned her around. "I can't believe it," he said as Emily tried to squirm out of his grasp. "This has got to be the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"What are you talking about?" Emily asked, looking a mixture of hurt and pissed off.

"You've fallen for Sirius!" James said.

"I have not fallen for anyone," Emily said tartly, finally pulling free.

"Don't even bother lying to me," James said, looking at her in disbelief.

Emily bit her lip and looked down at her shoes, not wanting to admit it to James. Finally she said softly, "You don't think I know how stupid it is?"

James looked at her, feeling sympathetic. "That's why you've been so awful to him lately?"

She nodded. "I thought I could talk myself into getting over him, but he's always there making it so bloody difficult! I get so frustrated that I take it out on him when I don't mean to. Please don't tell him, James."

James surveyed her for a minute and then grinned mischievously. "I won't… As long as you help me with Evans."

Emily glared at him and James took a step back. He wasn't quite sure if she was going to punch him or not. She sighed in defeat. "I'll have to think about it," she said before turning and walking in the other direction.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own anything that you notice from the Harry Potter books. 

A/N: Here is the next chapter! I'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter. It's shorter than any of the other chapters which sucks but I hope you guys like it anyways. I hope to have the next chapter up within the next couple days but I can't promise anything. Thank you to total fan of yours!1 (I'm so glad you like my story and my characters!) and Julie B (I'm glad you like the story too! I won't be one of those writers that abandons their story in the middle of it, right when it starts getting good but you know, school has been ridiculous lately and I'm working two jobs so I haven't had a lot of time to write. I do spend a lot of my free time writing though) for reviewing! Please review! I know people are reading this story and I like knowing what they think of it. I don't care if you hate it and want to kill me with a blunt, rusty spork, please, please, please review!

**Chapter 11**

"Lily!" Alice said as she ripped open the curtains to Lily's bed. "You have to help me!"

Lily moaned and put her hand over her eyes, trying to block the sunlight now streaming onto her bed. "What's going on?"

"My shirt ripped!" Alice said, practically screeching. "My red shirt!"

"So?" Lily asked groggily. She turned over and tried to fall back asleep.

"So!" Alice shrieked. "So what am I going to wear!"

Lily shot up in bed. She remembered now that it was the Saturday they were all going to Hogsmeade. She jumped out of bed and said, "How did you rip it?"

"It got caught on the bed post," Alice said, holding the tattered shirt in her hand. It had taken Alice two weeks to decide on the outfit she would wear on her date with Frank. When she had finally decided on a pretty red shirt and jean hip huggers, she had hung them on her bed post, taking them down every once in a while to make sure they looked good on her. "What am I going to do?"

Emily opened the curtains to her bed and said, "Will you please keep it down? It's far too early to be yelling."

"I will not!" Alice said shrilly.

Emily was clearly taken back by this; Alice was usually nice to a fault. She got out of bed and said, "What's the matter?"

"I don't know what I'm going to wear!" Alice said.

"But didn't you pick out your clothes a week ago?" Emily said, looking confused. At this point, the three other girls were poking their heads out of their bed curtains, curious to see what was going on. Alice held the ripped shirt up and Emily said, "Merlin. Did you get in a fight with a werewolf?"

"It's ok," Lily said, trying to calm Alice down. "You have plenty of other shirts you can wear."

"Yeah," Madison said, who had been watching the three of them from her bed. She got up and went over to Alice's trunk. "Come on, I'll help you look." She and Alice looked through the clothes in Alice's trunk while the other girls got dressed and ready for the day.

It took them almost an hour, but Alice finally settled on a blue top instead. She put it on and then looked in the mirror, feeling very self-conscious. "Are you sure this looks ok?" she asked the other girls.

"You look great," Lily said, smiling from her spot on Emily's bed. They were waiting for Alice and Madison so they could all go down to the Great Hall together.

Emily nodded in agreement. "It's not like he's going to care what you look like, anyways. He's just going to be glad he's finally out on a date with you." Alice smiled at this.

"Who are you going with, anyways?" Samantha asked curiously as she put her shoes on.

"You don't know?" Madison asked in shock from the mirror where she was applying her make-up, getting ready for her date with Vincent MacDonald, the keeper on the Hufflepuff quidditch team.

"No," Samantha said, looking confused. "Why would I?"

"Well, you're such a gossip," Madison said bluntly, turning from the mirror to face Samantha. "It's just surprising you don't already know."

Gwenog and Lily stood up at this, getting ready to get in between the argument that was sure to follow. But Samantha just laughed it off. "Well, I guess I'm just behind on my gossip," she said, smiling slightly. "I've been too busy with Sirius."

Emily visibly stiffened at this. "Oh right," Madison said. "You've been dating him for a while, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Samantha said happily. "Almost a month."

"Wow," Madison said, although she didn't sound impressed at all.

"That must be some kind of record for him," Lily said as she sat back down next to Emily.

Samantha laughed at this. "I know. I think he's changing into a one-woman kind of guy."

"If I were you, I wouldn't get my hopes up," Gwenog said skeptically.

Samantha rolled her eyes at this. "I'd better go, I told Sirius I'd meet him in the Great Hall for breakfast." She left with Gwenog, talking animatedly about what she was going to do with Sirius in Hogsmeade later that day.

As soon as she closed the door, Alice turned to Emily and said, "Are you alright?"

"Perfectly fine," Emily muttered from her spot next to Lily on the bed.

Madison turned around and said harshly, "Will you quit bloody lying to us?"

Emily looked up at Madison in shock. "I'm not lying!"

"Yes you are!" Madison said loudly. "You keep pretending that you don't like Black anymore but it's completely obvious that you do!"

"What is your problem?" Emily said angrily. She got up off the bed and walked over to Madison. "First you start railing on Samantha and –"

Madison cut Emily off by saying, "Don't even pretend that you care about Samantha!"

Emily bit her lip. "I know I didn't like her before," she said evenly, "but she's my friend now."

"Guys," Alice said, getting in between the two of them. "This is the dumbest thing to-"

"Oh please, Emily!" Madison said, interrupting Alice now. "The whole time she was talking about Sirius, you wanted to punch her! I could see it in your face! Just admit it!"

"Madison, knock it off!" Lily said, jumping off the bed and getting in the blonde's face. She knew Madison thought she was helping by being so bluntly honest, but it was the wrong way to go about it. "Why are you being such a bitch?"

"I'm just sick of being lied to," Madison muttered as she turned back to the mirror.

"Fine!" Emily said, exasperated. "You want the truth, Madison? No, I'm not over him, okay? You guys were right, helping her blew up in my face and I can't stand it because I can't stoop bloody thinking about him!" She walked to the door of the dormitory, threw it open and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

"Nice going, Madison," Lily said before running after Emily. She found Emily sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace. "Hey," Lily said softly, sitting down next to her.

Emily looked up and said, "Hey."

They heard a door slam. They looked at the stairs to their dormitory and saw Alice leading Madison down the stairs. She marched Madison over to Emily and Lily and said, "Go on."

"I'm sorry, Emily," Madison said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

"It's fine," Emily sighed. "You were right."

"I was?" Madison asked, looking confused now.

"Yes," Emily said. "I'm not over him. I thought if I acted like I was, I somehow would be but it only got worse." She put her head in her hands and muttered, "I'm such an idiot."

"No you're not!" Alice said, sitting on the other side of Emily.

"You know what you need to do?" Madison smiled.

"Commit myself," Emily muttered again. Lily couldn't help laughing at that, but she stifled her laughter at the glare Alice sent her.

"No," Madison grinned. "You need to start talking to other guys. Maybe you'll find someone that you like even more than Sirius."

Emily looked at them, confused. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Lily nodded, agreeing with Emily.

Alice said, "I don't know. It makes sense… sort of."

"Of course it does!" Madison said, "I have a great idea."

"What?" Lily said warily.

"I'm going to set you up with somebody today," Madison grinned.

"I wouldn't call that a great idea," Emily muttered.

Lily tried not to smile and said, "How are you going to find someone that doesn't have any plans already?"

"I'm sure one of Vincent's friends is free," Madison said, getting more and more excited. "You could come with us, sort of like a double date."

Emily looked up fearfully at Madison. "No! All his friends are such berks!"

Madison ignored that and started barking orders. "Lily, Alice, go upstairs and make her presentable for a date. I'm going to go find Vincent. Meet us at Madam Puddifoot's at noon."

"She's mental if she thinks I'm actually going to do that," Emily said as Lily and Alice dragged her up to the dormitory.

"It could be fun," Lily said. She knelt down and started rifling through Emily's trunk.

"Yeah, and maybe whoever she finds might help you get over Sirius," Alice suggested. Emily rolled her eyes at this.

"I doubt it," Emily muttered.

"Well, maybe you'll find someone that you'll like more than Black," Lily said, trying to be helpful. "Then it would be easier to get over him."

Emily rolled her eyes at this. "Emily," Alice said, "if you're so desperate to get over him, you should at least try."

"Alright, fine," Emily muttered. She sat in silence until Alice held up her jean miniskirt. "Oh no, Smith," Emily said. "I am not wearing that. It is too cold out."

Alice smiled at this. She shared a mischievous look with Lily, held up the skirt and said, "Look, Emily, you can either put this on willingly or we can force you into it." Emily's eyes widened at this and she grabbed the skirt.

When they finally got down to the Entrance Hall, breakfast had ended and everyone was queuing up for Filch to clear them for Hogsmeade. "Please don't make me go," Emily muttered to Lily and Alice.

Alice laughed at this. She saw Frank in line and said, "Lily, make sure she meets Madison." Then she turned and met up with Frank.

"Lily," Emily muttered as she got in the line, "I would really appreciate it if you could hit me in the back of the head with a heavy, blunt object. A coma would be the perfect excuse to miss this."

Lily laughed at this. "It won't be that bad."

Emily snorted in laughter. "That's what you think." They waited in silence. Once they got up to Filch, he checked them off on his clipboard and they started their walk to Hogsmeade. "What are you going to do?" Emily asked Lily.

"I don't know," Lily said. "I might go to Scrivenshaft's and Gladrags. I think I'm going to head back early though, I need to finish that Charms essay."

James Potter came up behind the two girls as they reached Hogwarts, followed closely by Remus and Peter. "Hey Evans," he smirked. "There's still time for you to change your mind and go on a date with me today. What do you say?"

"Let's see," Lily said sarcastically, "has hell frozen over yet?"

James looked at her, confused. "No…"

"Then I guess I haven't changed my mind," Lily said scathingly.

"Too bad, mate," Peter said, but he couldn't help smiling.

"What are you all dressed up for?" Remus asked Emily.

She grimaced and said, "I'm going on a blind date."

"You don't look too excited," James sniggered.

"I'm not," she said.

"What will you be doing in Hogsmeade, Evans?" James said, turning to Lily and smirking.

"Avoiding you," Lily muttered.

James frowned. Emily started to laugh but stopped at the glare James sent her. "Come on," he said. Remus and Peter followed him into Zonko's.

Lily grinned and said, "Thank Merlin we were able to get rid of him." Emily rolled her eyes and walked with Lily to Madam Puddifoot's.

-----

Alice couldn't have been more nervous. She was sitting across a very small table from Frank Longbottom. They had spent an hour cramped in Maddam Puddifoot's with what seemed like a thousand other couples and the date had been very awkward. Alice really liked Frank but she was starting to think if they didn't relax soon, the date would be a complete disaster.

"So," Alice said, trying to start a conversation. "Do you like being Head Boy?"

"It's alright," Frank said.

"Just alright?" Alice laughed.

"Yeah, it's a lot of work but it can be fun sometimes," he smiled, looking slightly nervous. Alice almost felt relieved knowing that he was probably just as nervous as she was.

"That's cool," Alice said. There was another awkward silence and Alice couldn't take it anymore. "Frank, I've got to admit, this place makes me feel…" She trailed off, suddenly not wanting to admit how uncomfortable she felt.

"Horribly awkward?" Franked smiled, relaxing a little.

"I was going to say slightly uncomfortable," Alice laughed.

"Yeah," Frank smiled. "Do you want to go somewhere else? It's kind of crowded in here."

"Sure," Alice said. They wound their way around the other small tables and left the teashop.

Once they got outside, Frank turned to her and said, "Let's go somewhere that's a little more private."

"Alright," Alice said, feeling a little unsure.

Frank smiled at her reassuringly. He grabbed her hand and led her past the crowds of Hogwarts students milling around on the street to the Shrieking Shack. Once they got there, Frank let go of her hand and Alice couldn't stop herself from feeling a little disappointed. After a few minutes of another awkward silence, Frank cleared his throat and said, "I have to admit, I was a little nervous about this."

"A little?" Alice said, raising an eyebrow at him.

Frank laughed. "Ok, I was very nervous. I'm still a little nervous, actually."

"I was nervous too," Alice admitted, smiling. "I still am pretty nervous."

"Really?" Frank asked looking surprised.

"Yeah," Alice said, looking at Frank in confusion. "Why is that so surprising?"

"I don't know," Frank shrugged. "It's just that… you have no reason to be nervous."

Alice couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Really?"

Frank laughed. "Yeah, really."

"Well, neither do you," Alice said flirtatiously. Frank smiled at Alice. Before Alice knew what was happening, he leaned in and kissed her. She smiled against his lips as she kissed him back. It was a soft, gentle kiss that made her feel weak in the knees. When they broke apart a couple minutes later, she was grinning like a fool. "Come on," she said, grabbing his hand and not letting go. "Let's go get a butterbeer."

"Ok," Frank said, smiling widely.

-----

James, Peter and Remus walked in to The Three Broomsticks that afternoon with large bags filled with everything that Zonko's sold. Peter went to get the drinks while Remus and James tried to find a table

"Merlin," James said as he squeezed past a group of third years and then sat down at a table in the corner of the room. "This place is just a little crowded."

"Yeah," Remus smiled, sitting down across from James. He looked around the room and saw something that wiped the smile clean off his face. Madison was snogging Vincent MacDonald in a booth across the room while Emily and Eric Chase, the seeker on the Hufflepuff quidditch team, sat awkwardly on the other side of the table.

James noticed Remus's face and turned to see what he was looking at. "Disgusting," James said when he saw Madison with Vincent.

Remus frowned. "I know."

"So you still fancy her?" James said, turning back around to look at Remus.

"I guess," Remus said. He looked down at his hands and said, "It's such a stupid thing to do, fancying someone that will never feel the same way but I just can't stop myself."

James smirked at this. "Believe me, Moony, I understand completely."

Remus smiled, "Has Emily given you an answer yet?"

"No," James said. He turned around again and looked over at the curly haired girl, who looked absolutely miserable. She noticed the two of them looking at her and mouthed the words 'Save me.' James turned back to Remus and said, "What did she say?"

"I think she just asked us to save her,'" Remus said, looking confused.

James laughed. "That's what I thought. What is she doing out with that idiot, anyways?" James and Eric Chase did not get along; both were extremely arrogant and thought they ruled the school. Remus shrugged. "Do you think we should help her?"

"Help who?" Peter said as he came over from the bar with three mugs full of butterbeer.

"Sullivan," Remus said, nodded to where she was sitting. Madison and Vincent had gotten up to leave, waving to Eric and Emily. Emily was glaring at Madison as if she couldn't believe that she had left her alone with Eric.

"Why?" Peter asked as he sat down.

James shrugged. "Who cares? It gives us an excuse to hex Chase." He grinned at Remus and Peter, all of them sharing mischievous looks.

Five minutes later, Eric was being chased from the bar with bat-sized bogeys attacking his face, which was covered in oozing sores. Emily came over to their table and grinned, "Thank you so much, you guys. I really owe you."

"It was no problem," James said, gesturing for her to sit down. "We'll take any chance we get to hex that prick."

"Why were you with him, anyways?" Peter asked.

"Madison set me up with him as a blind date," she said darkly. "I think it's pretty safe to say that that was the worst afternoon of my life."

James laughed. "What's up with Madison, anyways?" he asked, trying not to sound like he was gossiping. "I thought she was dating Timothy Peakes."

"No, she's trying the single life," Emily said. "I think she's only doing that so she can snog a bunch of different boys and not feel guilty about it."

"What a slag," Peter muttered.

Emily kicked him under the table and said, "Watch it! That's my best friend you're talking about."

James snorted in disbelief. "You'll stand up for Madison but not for me."

"Alright, the next time Peter starts badmouthing you in front of me, I'll punch him," Emily said, baffled. "Will that make you happy?"

"No!" Peter said. He wouldn't admit it, but Emily intimidated him a little bit. And after all he heard from James and Sirius, he never wanted to be on the receiving end of her right hook.

James laughed at Peter and said, "No, that doesn't make me happy. I mean you never stand up for me when your friend Lily starts bad mouthing me. Do I have to remind you that I've known you longer anyone else has?"

"I have stood up for you to Lily more than a few times," Emily smiled. "Just because you've never seen me do it doesn't mean I haven't."

"Yeah, it just makes it easier to lie about," Remus smirked.

"Be quiet, Lupin," Emily said, smiling.

"Have you made up your mind yet?" James asked her.

Emily looked down at her hands. "I don't know, James. I really don't think it's a good idea," she said, feeling a little nervous.

"What?" James asked, feeling angry now. "Why not?"

"Because it's wrong!" Emily said, getting defensive. "I don't think you realize how many problems this could create for the both of us."

"Do you know how many problems you're going to have when I tell Sirius?" James asked.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him and said, "You wouldn't."

"Tell Sirius what?" Peter asked curiously. Emily and James both glared at Peter.

"I think it's best to stay quiet, Wormtail," Remus said, in shock of what was happening in front of them. Peter nodded silently, too scared to say anything again.

"Yes, actually I would," James said.

"Why?" Emily said. "I mean, that's just malicious, Potter."

"Because I'm still angry at you, Sullivan! I just don't understand why you'll hook Samantha up with him but you won't even think about helping me," James said, trying very hard to keep his voice down even though he felt like screaming. He didn't want to cause a scene. Emily rolled her eyes when James mentioned Samantha and that seemed to upset him more. "I mean, it was such a dumb thing to do, considering –"

"Will you shut it?" Emily said shrilly, looking almost scared.

James opened to his mouth to say something when Peter yelled out, "Oy! Padfoot! Over here!" Sirius, who had just walked in, smiled and nodded at Peter before going to order a butterbeer. Emily looked like a deer caught in headlights. She kept looking from James to Sirius and back with a scared, thoughtful look on her face as if she were watching an interesting tennis match.

Remus almost gasped when he figured out what was going on. Or at least, what he thought he had figured it out. Because he thought it sounded as if Emily had some sort of crush on Sirius and James was going to tell him if she didn't agree to help him and if this was true, then Remus felt really bad for Emily. He felt like he should say something to James but didn't want to get his head bitten off. "James…" he muttered, looking at his best friend.

"Don't even bother trying to talk me out of this, Moony," James said, smiling evilly at Emily.

Emily glared at him and then looked back at Sirius, who was heading towards them with his own mug of butterbeer. She looked a little more anxious with every step Sirius took towards their table. When he finally reached the table and sat down, she looked like she had completely lost her mind, which was the exact way she felt. "Fine!" she practically yelled. "Fine! I'll do it!"

"Thank you, Emily," James said, in a mock sweet voice.

"Oh shut it!" Emily said. She sat back and crossed her arms. "Wanker," she muttered.

"Have you gone mad?" Sirius asked her, smirking.

Emily ignored him. "But I have one condition, James. If Lily ever finds out about this, I will murder you. And I am being completely serious," Emily said, glaring at James. Then she glared at the rest of them and said, "And the same goes for everyone else at this table."

Sirius groaned. "You're not actually going to help him, are you? We'll never hear the end of this now!" Emily narrowed her eyes at Sirius and shook her head. She got up and left without saying a word. "Bye then!" he yelled after her. He turned to James and said, "What was that all about?"

"He's blackmailing her into helping him with Evans," Remus said in shock. He couldn't believe James had actually pulled it off.

"What?" Sirius said, not believing Remus. When James nodded, his mouth fell open in shock. "How'd you manage that?"

"I found out something that I shouldn't have," James muttered.

"Yeah, about you," Peter said to Sirius. He winced as both Remus and James kicked him under the table.

Sirius looked at them and said, "What about me?"

"It's nothing," James said, trying to sound as nonchalant as he could. He decided to change the subject. "So, about the prank for tonight –"

"What about me?" Sirius asked again, narrowing his eyes at James.

James looked helplessly at Remus, silently begging him to help him out. Remus looked down determinedly at his hands, not wanting to get in the middle of it. "Well, Padfoot," James said, "It's just that I've found out why she's been avoiding you for the past couple weeks and she didn't want me to tell you, so…"

"And you're not going to tell me anyways?" Sirius asked, looking a little annoyed.

"Well, no," James said, grinning sheepishly at his best friend.

"Unbelievable," Sirius muttered. He sighed and then said, "What about the prank?"


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Of course, I don't own anything that appears in Harry Potter. 

A/N: So… this is the last chapter I wrote while in Florida. At first, it was incredibly long and since I didn't want to delete anything, I decided to make it into a bit of a cliffhanger:) Haha. I've written Chapter Thirteen already so I will post that in a few days though, so don't worry! Anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter! And many thanks to Suddy, james-s2-lily, and Andrien for reviewing! I actually decided to post this chapter a few days earlier because of your reviews :)

**Chapter 12**

"Emily, when are you going to help me?" James said, almost whining, as he left the changing rooms at the quidditch pitch with Emily and Sirius, heading back to Gryffindor tower after a long night of practice. It was the week before the match and Emily had upped practices to everyday.

"James, will you quit whining?" Emily said, sounding exhausted.

"Yeah, Prongs," Sirius said as he shoved James. "Knock that shit off."

Emily shook her head disapprovingly at this but didn't say anything. She had been horrible to Sirius ever since he had started dating Samantha, avoiding him as best as she could. The few times she couldn't avoid him, she had treated him like the mud on the bottom of her trainers. But things had gotten much worse since that afternoon in the Three Broomsticks. She was now treating him like a complete non-entity, ignoring him whenever she had to be around him. "Besides, it's only been a couple of days," she said to James.

"Yeah, but it feels like it's been longer," James said. "What's taking you so long?"

Emily couldn't help grinning. "You're so ridiculous," she muttered. "I've been busy! It's not like I can blow off all my other responsibilities just because I said I'd help you."

"Or you think that if you keep putting it off then you'll never have to do it," James said. "Because if that's the truth then I am going to tell -"

Emily stopped walking and glared at James, enraged. "James Potter!" she yelled, cutting him off. "I swear on my mother's grave that if you say one more bloody word, I am going to rip your fucking head off!"

"Sorry," he muttered, knowing he had taken it too far. Sirius was looking at the both of them as if he thought they were both complete nutters.

Emily sighed and started walking back towards the castle again. "Look, James, if I'm really going to do this, I need to set down some rules."

"Rules?" James asked. "Why?"

"She wants to be able to completely boss you around," Sirius smirked.

Emily pretended she hadn't heard him and said, "Because I'm not going to do this if you're not being serious!"

"Ok," James said, knowing she had a point. "What are your rules?"

"You have to actually listen to me," she said, "and not blow it off. I'm not going to waste my time if you're not actually going to follow it."

"See?" Sirius said to James. "I told you she wanted to boss you around, Prongs."

"Will you shut up?" Emily said, snapping at Sirius.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something but James cut him off. He wasn't going to let their bickering stop Emily from finally giving him some good advice on Lily. "I can do that. What are the other rules?"

"Well there's only one other one," she said, looking slightly uneasy. "You have to promise you won't get mad at me for some of the things I say."

"What?" James said. He shared a confused look with Sirius and they both laughed.

"I'm being serious here, James!" Emily said. "You're like a brother to me but if you actually want me to help you then I am going to have to be completely honest with you. And some of the things that I have to say may bruise your ego and you may want to punch me but you have to promise that you won't. If you can't handle that kind of honesty then I'm not going to do it."

"Ok, I won't get mad at you," James said, still not quite understanding what she was saying. "Now, what can I do to make her like me?"

"Alright," Emily sighed. "If you want Lily Evans to like you, and I mean if you want her to actually give you a chance, you're going to have to change a couple things about yourself."

"What?" Sirius asked, feeling outraged for his best friend. "He's fine the way he is!"

"We wouldn't be having this conversation if he was fine the way he is, Black," Emily said, annoyed. She turned to James and said, "James, you're like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde."

"Who?" James said, looking even more confused.

"There's this side of you that's caring, brave, smart, and loyal to a fault," Emily said, trying to explain what she meant properly. "But there's this other side that's arrogant, conceited, and immature. And for some reason, that's the only side you've shown to Lily since you were thirteen."

"Oh," James said, still confused but also feeling hurt now. "So I'm insane and have split personalities and that's why Lily hates me?"

"No," Emily said, getting frustrated now. "She doesn't hate you."

"She doesn't?" Sirius asked, surprised.

"No, Sirius!" Emily snapped. "If she hated him, James wouldn't be able to get under her skin like he does."

"Ok," James said, starting to feel annoyed now. "We've been talking about this for ten minutes now and all you've told me is that I'm an asshole. Do you think you could say something that would be a little bit helpful now?"

Emily thought for a minute and then said, "Alright, the first thing you need to do is leave Lily alone!"

Sirius snorted at this and said, "Leaving her alone isn't going to –"

Emily interrupted him by saying, "Black, if James had wanted your advice he would have blackmailed you into giving it to him."

"She has a point, Padfoot," James snickered. Sirius looked very annoyed at this but didn't say another word.

"Like I was saying," Emily said, glaring at Sirius, "leave Lily alone. Stop annoying her, stop pranking her, and, most importantly, stop asking her out. Actually, maybe you just stop talking to her at all."

"I don't understand. I should ignore her completely?" James asked.

"Well, not completely," Emily said. "If you absolutely have to talk to her, then you should try to be as short and polite as you can. I just think you should keep your distance until you've…" She couldn't think of the right word to say.

"Until I've what?" James asked.

"Grown up," Emily muttered.

"Ok," James said. "That's all I have to do?"

"No, that's just the beginning," Emily laughed. "You need to stop bullying people, especially Snape."

Sirius groaned at this. "But he starts everything!"

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "Look, I know he's a prat but Lily seems to think he's her friend."

"She's friends with that slimy git?" James asked in shock.

"I don't know if they're actually friends," Emily said as if she couldn't believe Severus Snape could have any friends. "Anyways, they talk to each other in potions and I'm sure she'll hear about it from him if you do anything to him. And you need to quit showing off and you need to stop playing such malicious pranks on people."

Sirius gasped. "We can't stop playing pranks!" He turned to James and said, "I told you this was a bad idea!"

"I didn't tell you to stop playing pranks!" Emily said. "I simply said not to play such malicious pranks."

James looked thoughtful for a minute. "So if I leave Lily and Snape alone, don't bully the first years anymore and only play harmless pranks, then Lily will like me?"

"Well, she'll like you a lot more than she does now," Emily said. "Look, James, there's more to it but I really think you should just start slow."

"Slow?" Sirius butted in. "You've told him to change himself completely! You think that's starting slow?"

Emily rolled her eyes but didn't say anything to Sirius. They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and James told her the password. "Bye," Emily muttered before hurrying up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. James and Sirius walked over to the table where Remus and Peter were doing their homework and sat down. James turned to Sirius and said, "What do you think?"

"About what?" Peter asked curiously.

"You're a nosey little git, aren't you Wormtail?" Sirius grinned at Peter, who narrowed his eyes at Sirius but didn't say anything.

"Sullivan was finally helping me," James explained to Peter and Remus.

"Oh," Remus said, turning back to his potions book. He still didn't think that it was a good idea.

"Did she tell you how you could make Evans like you?" Peter asked.

"No, Wormtail, she told him how to make a nice casserole," Sirius said sarcastically.

"What did she say?" Peter asked, deciding to ignore Sirius.

"Well, she said I had to stop bullying people around, especially Snape, stop showing off and I had to leave Lily alone," James said. Remus rolled his eyes at this, he had told James the exact same thing but he hadn't listened.

"And she said you had to stop pranking people!" Sirius reminded him.

"What?" Peter asked in shock. "You're not going to do that, are you?"

"Of course he isn't," Sirius scoffed at the idea. "Right, Prongs?"

"I don't know," James said. He didn't think he could give up pranking. It was who he was, it was in his blood and it was what he was known throughout the school for. He watched as Lily sat with Alice Smith and Frank Longbottom, talking animatedly about something and felt a pang of jealousy in his gut.

Sirius looked at James in shock. "You're telling me that you're going to have tea with Snape just so you can shag Evans?"

Peter sniggered and Remus shook his head. "It's not like that, Padfoot," James said.

"So you don't want to shag her?" Sirius asked, confused. "Then why are you doing this?"

"No, I do want to," James said, blushing now. "But that's not all that I want."

Sirius narrowed his eyes and said, "Oh, so you're going soft on us? Is that what you're trying to say?"

James glared at Sirius and punched him on the arm. "I have not and will never go soft."

"Maybe Emily just meant that you shouldn't bully people or show off in front of Lily?" Peter suggested. "But it's ok to do it when she's not watching?" Sirius and James both gaped at Peter. Peter looked at them and said, "It makes sense."

"Yeah, if you only have three brain cells," Sirius said, shaking his head. He turned to James and said, "I can't believe that you're going to do it."

"I think it's great," Remus said. He thought it was about time James grew up. He only hoped that Sirius would follow suit.

-----

Lily walked into the library the next night and smiled when she saw Remus sitting alone at a table, working on something. She walked over to him and said, "Is it alright if I sit here?" Normally, Lily wouldn't have done this. Even though she thought Remus was the most tolerable out of all the marauders, she didn't like the fact that he couldn't keep his friends in line and he continued to play pranks while he was a prefect. But her friends had all been so busy the last few days, Alice was with Frank, Madison had been spending all her time with Vincent MacDonald and Emily had been at quidditch practice, that Lily had felt pretty lonely sitting by herself in the common room at night.

"Yeah," Remus smiled before going back to his homework.

"What are you working on?" Lily asked as she sat down across from him.

"The arithmancy essay," Remus said. "I'm having a hard time with it, though."

"So am I," Lily said as she pulled her arithmancy book out of her bag. "Do you want to work on it together?"

"Sure," Remus said, smiling in relief. Lily was the best student in arithmancy and he knew he would get a good grade on his essay if they worked together. He pulled out a complicated number chart and said, "I can't really understand this chart."

Lily looked at it and said, "It took me almost a week to figure that one out!" She explained it to Remus and they began working on their essays together.

After working quietly for an hour, Lily looked up and noticed that Remus looked sickly. Well, Remus always had a sickly look to him but it was more pronounced today. "Remus, are you feeling alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Remus lied nervously. "It's just a cold." The truth was that it wasn't just a cold; the full moon was in a couple days and he could feel his body getting weaker as the wolf got ready to take over. But he could never let Lily know about that, he figured she would think he was a horrible monster that had to be killed.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked, not believing him. "Do you want to go to the Hospital Wing?"

"No, it's fine," Remus said.

Lily stared at him. She knew Remus was lying but didn't think she should press it any further. "Well, you should go see Madam Pomfrey if it gets any worse."

Remus smirked, "Yes, mother."

Lily laughed and was shushed by Madam Pince, who was walking around the library glaring at all the students. They worked in silence until Madam Pince came back to their table to tell them that the library was closing. "We should check this book out of the library," Lily said, referring to a reference book that Remus had found. It had been very helpful in deciphering even the most complicated number charts.

"You do it," Remus said. "I owe about a galleon in overdue charges."

Lily smiled and walked to the front of the library, where Madam Pince was checking out books for a long line of students. It took Lily ten minutes to get the book because Madam Pince was spending more time glaring at the students than actually checking the books out. Remus waited for her by the library doors and they left together. "I really don't like that woman," Lily muttered once they were a considerable distance away from the library.

"Who?" Remus asked, surprised. He never would have expected Lily Evans to say anything bad about an authority figure.

"Madam Pince," Lily said. "She's a little too fond of the books. It creeps me out."

Remus laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she hates all of the students too."

"I know," Lily laughed. "All because we're using her precious books."

At that moment, Filch turned the corner and saw the both of them. "What are you doing out this late?" he asked, sounding excited that he found students out of their common rooms.

Remus looked confused and said, "It's not curfew yet."

"It is for the first and second years!" Filch said. There was a look of disappointment on his face because he knew he wouldn't be able to give Lily and Remus a detention.

Remus sniggered as Lily raised an eyebrow at Filch. "Do we look like we're first years?" she asked.

"Watch it," Filch said before shuffling the opposite way down the hallway.

Remus burst out laughing. "I never thought I'd ever see Lily Evans talk back to an authority figure."

Lily laughed and shrugged. "It was just Filch."

"Let me guess, you don't particularly like him either?" Remus smiled.

"No," Lily said, grinning. "Although I do think he and Madam Pince would make a lovely couple."

"A lovely, hate-filled couple that –" Remus stopped when they heard a noise coming from a broom closet they were passing. "What was that?"

Lily tried not to giggle and said, "Come on, Remus. Use your brain."

"Oh," Remus said as he realized it was probably a snogging couple. Lily grinned mischievously at him and started tiptoeing towards the door. "What are you doing?" Remus hissed.

She shushed him and knocked on the door. Seconds later, the door flung open to reveal Madison and Vincent MacDonald. "Lily?" Madison said angrily, trying to smooth her tousled hair. "What the fuck?"

Lily tried to look disapproving but failed. "So that's where you went," Lily grinned. "You guys better get back to your common rooms, it's almost curfew."

"You guys are still out," Madison said accusingly.

"We're prefects," Lily said smugly.

"You're not on patrol tonight," Madison countered.

"Fine Madison. Get back in the cupboard but don't say I didn't warn you when Filch catches you," Lily said.

"Fine," Madison muttered. She grabbed Vincent's hand and started walking with him towards his common room, although Lily knew that they were going to find another closet to snog in.

She looked over at Remus, who had stayed quiet during this exchange and saw that he was scowling. Once she was sure that the hallway was deserted, she turned to him and said, "Excuse me if this is too personal, Remus, but you really like her, don't you?"

Remus blushed and looked down at his shoes. "I'm sorry, Lily, but that is too personal."

"Oh, sorry," Lily said quietly. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok," Remus interrupted her.

Lily smiled at him and they walked the rest of the way in silence. When they reached the portrait hole, Lily wasn't quite sure what she was doing when she turned to Remus and said, "Remus, I know I'm probably overstepping my boundaries here again and if you ever tell anyone I told you this, I will deny it and then kill you while you sleep. But she told me the other week that you were the person she'd want to have an actual, serious relationship with, not these silly two-week flings that she seems to be stuck on. I just thought you should know that." With that, she told the Fat Lady the password and hurried into the common room before Remus could say anything else.

Remus stood there in shock. He wasn't sure what to make of what she had just said, but he didn't have to ask who Lily was talking about. He shook his head, grinned, and walked into the common room.

-----

Sirius groaned as he trudged into the quidditch changing rooms with the rest of the team. They had just had a less than spectacular practice and Emily was on the warpath. He walked over to the locker next to James's and said, "So are we still going to prank Snape tomorrow?"

"Be quiet, Padfoot!" James said, looking around for Emily. "If Sullivan hears you, she's going to kill me!"

"She's too busy shrieking at Whitehorn to notice," Sirius said.

"I do not shriek, Black," Emily said from behind them, sounding slightly murderous.

James jumped and said, "No, you just sneak up on people and eavesdrop on their conversations."

Emily ignored that and said, "Can you two stop thinking about pranks for the two hours of practice? Is that really too much to ask? Or are your pranks more important than our match, which, if you've forgotten, is in two bloody days!"

"Don't worry about the match, Sullivan," Sirius smirked. He knew he was pushing Emily's buttons.

"Don't worry?" Emily shrieked, her face turning pink. "Don't worry? One of my chasers is trying too bloody hard to show off, my seeker lost the bloody snitch, I played the worst I have ever played, you got hit in the face with a bludger because you were too busy making kissy faces at your girlfriend in the stands and you're telling me not to worry!"

"Ok," Sirius muttered. "Maybe you should worry a little bit."

Emily closed her eyes and counted to ten before turning to James and said, "James, I want you and Matt to work with Kennedy tomorrow, alright?" James nodded. "And while you're at it, can you please tell him that you're not out to get him?"

"It's not nice to lie," James smirked.

"It is when it comes to quidditch!" Emily said. She turned to Sirius and said, "And Black, tell your bloody girlfriend to stop coming to the fucking practices!" She turned sand saw Kennedy trying to sneak out of the changing room. "Williamson!" she yelled. "Don't you try to sneak off, I've got to talk to you!" She hurried off after him.

"What is her problem?" Sirius said angrily as he changed into his school robes.

Matthew Sullivan, who was standing a couple lockers down from Sirius, snorted and said, "You really don't know?"

Sirius looked at Matthew, his mouth hanging open in shock. "You know too?"

Matthew looked at Sirius and said, "Of course I know. It's pretty damn obvious."

"Did she tell everyone what I did to piss her off except me?" Sirius muttered, feeling very annoyed.

"Who did she tell?" Matt asked curiously.

"James," Sirius muttered.

"She didn't tell me, I figured it out," James clarified. "And it is kind of obvious, Padfoot."

Matt laughed. "You must be stupid if you haven't figured it out yet, Black." He gathered up his things and said, "I'll see you guys later."

Sirius turned to James after Matt left and said, "You're still not going to tell me?"

"Sirius, do you really want to know?" James asked,

"Yes!" Sirius practically yelled. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know!"

"Then ask her," James said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Sirius stared dumbfounded at James for a minute. "Right," he said. "I'll just go up to her while she's ripping her hair out over the damn quidditch team and say 'Hello Emily, do you think you could tell me why you've been such a horrid bitch to me these past few months?' I'm sure that will go over really well, Prongs."

James snorted. "You're right. She'd probably slap you and then storm off."

"Exactly," Sirius said. He leaned against the locker and watched Emily as she ranted to Gwenog Jones about the practice. "How haven't I noticed it if it's so damn obvious?" he said thoughtfully.

James shrugged. "Maybe you can't see it because you're too involved."

Sirius stood in a thoughtful silence while he waited for James to finish changing. "I could always give her some veritaserum," he said as he walked out with James. "Or follow her around under the cloak until she mentions it to somebody."

James laughed. "You could always lock her in a room somewhere and not let her out until she tells you."

Sirius turned to James sand said, "That's a brilliant idea, Prongs!" He turned around and walked back to the changing room.

"I was just joking, Padfoot!" James yelled after him. James shook his head and continued walking up to the castle.

Sirius stood by the door to the changing room, hoping to ambush Emily when she walked out. He nodded to the rest of the team as they walked by but after ten minutes, Emily still hadn't left. He walked back into the changing room and saw her sitting on a bench in front of a miniature model of a quidditch field, prodding it with her wand and muttering to herself. "Sullivan?" he asked. "Have you finally gone insane?"

"No, why?" Emily asked without looking up.

"Well, you're threatening the plastic model seeker," Sirius pointed out, trying not to laugh. "Most people wouldn't consider that sane."

"It's quidditch, it's making me mad," she muttered. "All of you will put me in St. Mungo's."

"Maybe you should stop thinking about it for the night," Sirius suggested.

She sighed and got up from the bench. "You're right," she said. She grabbed the team's broomsticks, stuck them under her arm and then grabbed the crate holding the balls.

Sirius took it from her and said, "I'll get that."

"Thanks," she muttered absentmindedly and they walked to the broom shed in silence. She opened the door for him but he stood there stubbornly and said, "You first." She raised an eyebrow at him but walked into the broom shed, placing the brooms against the wall with the school brooms. Sirius followed her in, put the crate down and muttered, "Colloportus."

Emily turned around and heard the door make a squelching sound. "What the hell, Sirius?" she asked, confused.

"I'm not letting you out until you tell me what is wrong with you," Sirius said.

"There's nothing wrong with me!" Emily said defensively.

She pulled her wand out of her pocket but Sirius was too fast for her. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled. Emily's wand flew from her hand and onto the ground next to Sirius's feet. He picked it up and said, "Yes there is, Emily. You've been avoiding me ever since school started and whenever you're around me, you either ignore me or treat me like shit."

"No I haven't," Emily said defiantly.

"Yes you have!" Sirius said.

"No I –" Emily stopped herself and rubbed her forehead. "Look Black, we're obviously not going to get anywhere so just let me out!"

Sirius laughed and said, "Or what?"

Emily crossed her arms and glared at the floor. After a few minutes she said, "Well, I hope you at least brought some blankets because there's no way we're getting out of here tonight."

"Why won't you just tell me what I did to piss you off?" Sirius said, annoyed now. "That's all you have to do! Then we can leave and you can go back to avoiding me."

"I can't tell you," Emily said softly, determinedly not looking at him.

"Why not?" Sirius said, practically yelling.

"Because it would ruin everything!" Emily yelled.

That confused Sirius. "What?"

"I can't tell you because it would ruin everything, Sirius!" Emily said, sounding slightly neurotic. "And I'm just not prepared for that!"

"It won't ruin anything, Emily." Sirius was really confused now. He took a step closer to her and said gently, "I promise it won't."

Emily looked into Sirius's grey eyes, which were wide with confusion, and it was like something inside of her snapped. Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed him and kissed him.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I bow to the greatness that is J.K. Rowling and wish I was half as brilliant as she is. 

A/N: So here's chapter 13! It would have been up sooner but I kept finding things that I wanted to change. Finally, I decided it was time to quit nitpicking and just post it already. Sadly, this is the last of the chapters that are already written so updating will go back to being sporadic. I'm sorry but… I do spend a lot of my free time writing so hopefully it won't take me too long. I'm a little over half way through fourteen and I will post that as soon as I finish, I promise! And I feel like I should say something… I know that everyone really wants Lily and James to get together already but... I don't know. I feel like it would be too awkward and weird if they suddenly got together and they need to take steps towards that, which they finally are. And if you know me, you know I kind of drag things out and I'm really trying not to but it's a hard habit to break, haha. Thank you to Suddy, james-s2-lily, and Mz Qt for such nice reviews! And if you are reading this, please review! It gets kind of discouraging when you get so many hits and only a few reviews. So please, if you love it, hate it, noticed a huge mistake I made and want to correct me, or whatever, please review and tell me! Wow, this was a long note so points to you if you read it all, haha :)

**Chapter 13**

Emily looked into Sirius's grey eyes, which were wide with confusion, and it was like something inside of her snapped. Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed him and kissed him This definitely wasn't what Sirius was expecting her to do; he was so shocked he couldn't move. Emily came to her senses and pulled away, looking dumbfounded by what she had done. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I just… I should go." She walked over to door and turned the knob, forgetting that it was locked. When it wouldn't open, she turned around and said, "Will you please open the door?" Sirius stood there, still shocked. "Sirius, please," she pleaded.

He shook his head. "What?" he asked. Sirius felt so jumbled up, he hadn't heard a thing she said after she kissed him.

"Open the damn door!" Emily said, her eyes starting to water. She had never felt so humiliated in her life.

"No," he said softly. She looked at him, her eyes filled with embarrassment and rage. Sirius was sure that if she wasn't on the verge of crying she would have punched him right in the mouth. He walked over to her, lifted her chin and kissed her softly.

Emily gasped against his lips and then kissed him back. Her heart felt like it was swelling up as he wrapped his arm around her waist and deepened the kiss. But the voice of her conscience was getting louder and louder in her head, nagging at her. Finally she broke the kiss and said, "Sirius, we shouldn't be doing this."

"What?" Sirius asked, feeling even more confused now. "Emily, you kissed me!"

"You have a girlfriend!" she said.

"I'll break up with her," he said. He leaned in to kiss her again but she gently shoved him away.

"You don't get it, do you?" she said, starting to get worked up now. "If we do this, we can't go back to being friends! And what's going to happen when you get bored with me after a few weeks? Or what about when some other girl goes and kisses you and you decide you like her more? Do you really want to throw our friendship away for that?" Sirius stared at her in disbelief. He was pretty sure that she had finally gone off the deep end. She took his silence as an agreement and muttered, "I didn't think so." She grabbed her wand, opened the door, and hurried up the hill towards the castle.

He watched Emily as she left, not knowing what exactly had just happened. He didn't know what Emily was playing at; they had reached the point of no return when she kissed him. They could never go back to the way things were. He wasn't so sure that he wanted them to. After Emily was gone, Sirius hurried up to the common room, trying to sort out his feelings as he went. He felt so disoriented that he almost got stuck in the trick stair on his way. He wasn't exactly sure what he felt towards Emily now, all he knew was that it felt like his insides were full of lead. Once he got to the common room, he saw James, Peter and Remus sitting at a table in the corner, huddled over something. He walked over and said, "I thought we were going to work on the map together."

"I told them you'd be angry!" Peter said, shaking his head.

Remus laughed and said, "It was your idea, Wormtail!"

"It was not!" Peter said, blushing and not looking Sirius in the eye.

"We didn't know when you'd get back," Remus explained.

"Or if you'd ever get back," James smirked. "What happened?"

Sirius sat down in the chair between James and Remus. "Nothing happened," he said darkly.

"Do you expect us to believe that?" James said. "She ran through here about five minutes ago, practically sobbing. What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything!" Sirius said. All three of them looked like they didn't believe him in the least. "Ok, I locked her in the broom shed," he muttered.

"You locked her in the broom shed?" Remus repeated, sounding horrified. "You didn't do anything… except lock her in the broom shed?"

"It was James's idea!" Sirius tried to defend himself.

"No it wasn't!" James said. "I was only joking!"

"I don't get it," Peter said. "Why would you want to lock her in the broom shed?"

"He wanted to find out why she's been avoiding him," James explained. "So what happened?"

Sirius looked around the room as if he was making sure no one was listening and said, "She kissed me. And then she went completely crazy and started rambling about how she didn't want to throw our friendship away. And then she just stormed off."

"Why did she kiss you then?" Peter asked, confused.

"That's what I want to know," Sirius said, darkly.

"Well, you don't exactly have the best track record with girls," Remus said, trying to make sense of it. "I mean, you've been friends with her for a while now. It's not really worth taking the risk." He looked at Sirius, who was still scowling and asked, "Is it?"

"I don't know," Sirius muttered. He sat back and stared darkly at the ground. Remus felt concerned and looked to James, as if he would know what to do. James shrugged and the three of them turned back to the map. A few minutes later, Sirius spotted Samantha walking into the common room. "I'll see you guys later," Sirius said before getting up and walking over to Samantha. He whispered something and she followed him out of the common room, grinning.

James, Remus and Peter sat in silence for a few minutes, working diligently on the map. Finally, James looked up and said, "Do you think she'll keep helping me with Lily?"

"Why wouldn't she?" Remus asked, although he thought he knew why.

"Because that was what I used to blackmail her," James explained.

"You blackmailed her with that?" Remus asked in shock. James nodded and Remus laughed, "You are a horrible person, James Potter." James grinned and pretended to take a bow.

Peter laughed at this. "Remind me never to tell you who I fancy, Prongs."

James grinned and said, "I already know you fancy that blonde Hufflepuff. What was her name again? Rebecca?"

"Rachel," Remus corrected him.

Peter blushed. He spotted Lily walking over to them and said, "Incoming!" James grabbed the map and hid it behind his back just as Lily got to their table. She looked at him and seemed to be deciding if she should ignore his odd behavior or demand to see the piece of parchment he was hiding when Peter said, "Do you want something?"

Lily turned to Remus and handed him the book they had gotten from the library. "Here, I finished my essay."

"Oh, thanks," Remus grinned, taking the book from her. Instead of walking away, Lily looked at the three of them inquisitively. She knew they were up to something and she wanted to find out what it was.

An awkward silence fell over the four of them. James was staring a spot on the table, determinedly not looking up at Lily. He was also doing his best to stop himself from making a cheeky comment that would get him slapped. Lily wasn't sure if she should be relieved that he wasn't talking to her, or frightened that he was planning something. Peter and Remus were looking between the two of them in amusement, trying their hardest not to laugh. Just as she turned to leave, James blurted out, "You might want to check on Emily."

She turned around and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why? What did you do to her?"

"Nothing!" James said defensively.

"She ran through here earlier looking pretty upset," Peter said.

"You should make sure she's alright," James said.

"Why didn't you?" Lily asked, feeling very annoyed with James. If Emily had been so upset, why hadn't James done something? He was supposed to be her friend.

"Can't go up to the girls' dormitory, or at least not with this many people around," James smirked.

Lily rolled her eyes and headed up to the dormitory. The room was empty, but she could hear sniffling coming from behind the drawn curtains on Emily's bed. She tiptoed over to Emily's bed and yanked the curtain open. She was shocked when she saw Emily frantically wiping at her puffy, red eyes. "Emily!" Lily said, looking very concerned. She sat down next to her friend and asked, "What happened?"

"I just did something really awful," Emily said, trying to stop crying. "I honestly think it was the stupidest thing I have ever done."

Lily pulled her into a hug and said, "I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"It was," Emily said, tears running down her cheeks. "Really, Lily, you should go. You're probably losing brain cells just being in the same room as me."

Lily tried not to grin at this and asked, "What did you do?"

"I kissed Sirius," Emily muttered.

Lily shook her head, she was sure that she hadn't heard Emily properly. "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right," she said.

"I said I kissed Sirius, Lily!" Emily said loudly just as the dormitory door opened. She looked up in fear, hoping that it wasn't Samantha or Gwenog walking in. She sighed in relief when she saw that it was just Madison.

"You did what?" Madison asked in shock.

"Don't make me say it again," Emily groaned.

"Why?" Madison was still in shock. She walked over and sat down on the other side of Emily.

"I obviously lost all common sense," Emily muttered, putting her head in her hands. "I am such an idiot! He is never going to talk to me again."

"I'm sure he will," Lily said.

"Did he kiss you back?" Madison asked.

"Not at first," Emily said, sniffling.

"Wait," Madison said, not quite understanding. "You kissed him more than once?"

"Technically, he kissed me the second time," Emily said.

Lily looked scandalized while Madison looked confused. "I don't get it," Madison said. "Why is that bad?"

"Because he has a girlfriend!" Lily said, reprimanding her. "What did you do?"

"I reminded him of that," Emily said, wiping at the tears that were still coming. "He told me that he'd break up with her and then I kind of freaked out."

Lily and Madison shared a bewildered look. "Why?" Lily asked softly.

"I don't want to be just another girl to him," Emily said, finally able to stop crying. "I couldn't let myself do that."

Lily nodded in understanding while Madison looked thoughtful. "What are you going to do?" Madison asked.

"I don't know," Emily said. "I wish we could just pretend that tonight never happened and go back to being friends."

"You know that's never going to happen," Madison said bluntly.

"Madison!" Lily said reproachfully. She didn't think Madison's bluntness was appropriate, even if she was just trying to be honest.

"I'm sorry, but Emily needs to hear this," Madison said, turning to Emily. "I know you don't want to lose your friendship with him, but you are. And you will lose him completely if you don't talk to him soon and explain what happened."

"She's right," Lily said. "Who knows, maybe you'll find that he feels the same way."

"Doubt it," Emily muttered.

-----

Emily had tried to talk to Sirius the next day, but had given up on that completely when she caught him snogging Samantha behind a tapestry in the Charms hallway. Lily was pretty sure that the whole world had gone completely nutters after that. Sirius had been spending an abnormal amount of time with Samantha and Emily simply refused to be in the same room as him. She had also been unusually quiet and Lily had heard her crying behind the drawn curtains of her bed on more than one occasion. But the person that worried Lily the most was James Potter. He hadn't said one word to her since that night. In fact, she was sure that he was ignoring her completely. She was certain he was plotting something but she was grateful to be left alone. It seemed that the only sane person was Alice, who had been spending a lot of time with Frank Longbottom.

It was the day of the quidditch match and the Great Hall was buzzing with excitement when she walked in. The Gryffindor team would be playing Slytherin and the whole school seemed to choose sides in this heated rivalry. Slytherins hissed at her as she made her way to where Alice, Frank and Madison were sitting at the Gryffindor table. When she got there, Frank turned to her and said, "Are you excited for the match?"

Madison laughed at this. "Lily excited for a quidditch match? That's a good one, Longbottom."

Alice smirked. "Next you'll be suggesting that Lily actually goes to a match."

Frank looked at Lily as if she were crazy and said, "You're not going to the match?"

"Definitely not," Lily said.

"But it's Gryffindor versus Slytherin!" Frank said, aghast at the thought of someone not attending the match.

Madison snorted. "Really, Frank? I'm sure Lily never would have known who was playing if you hadn't told her."

Alice shot a glare at Madison and said, "Lily thinks quidditch creates more tension between the houses than necessary."

"But that's insane!" Frank said, still shocked. "How can you not like quidditch?"

Madison rolled her eyes and said, "Honestly, it's not a crime to hate quidditch."

"I don't hate it," Lily said, "I just don't find it particularly interesting. Besides, I have better things to do."

Madison smirked and said, "Please don't tell me you're going to spend the whole day in the library."

"I have to finish that potions essay for Slughorn!' Lily said.

Madison rolled her eyes and Alice smirked. "Lily, you shouldn't stay in the library all weekend. It's not healthy."

"I won't, Alice," Lily said. She laughed at Alice's skeptical look and said, "I swear, I won't."

"You should at least come to the common room for the victory party after the match," Madison grinned.

Frank groaned and said, "Don't jinx the team! They haven't won yet!"

"You know they're going to, Longbottom," Madison said, rolling her eyes again. "Gryffindor has beaten Slytherin in the opening match four years running."

"That doesn't mean that they're going to," Frank reprimanded her.

"Oh, I hope they do," Alice said, looking worried. "I think Emily might go crazy if they don't." They all looked down to where Emily was sitting with the rest of the Quidditch team, separated from the rest of the house. She looked pale and nervous and was muttering non-stop to the fourth year boy next to her. "I'm worried about her," Alice said. "She hasn't been the same since…" She trailed off, not wanting to say anything in front of Frank.

"Since what?" Frank asked curiously.

"I know," Lily said darkly, ignoring Frank. "He really got under her skin."

"Of course it doesn't help that he's parading around like he has been with Thompson," Madison said. Alice and Lily both glared at her, thinking she had given away who they were talking about by saying Samantha's last name, but Frank didn't seem to notice. At that moment, the team got up and left the Great Hall.

Frank looked at the three girls in confusion. "Okay, I am completely lost."

"It's nothing," Alice said, smiling sweetly at him. "Come on. Let's go so we can get a good seat." They got up and left the Great Hall, with Madison and a fifth year Gryffindor named Dylan Montgomery following close behind.

Lily ate the rest of her breakfast by herself, watching as the Great Hall slowly emptied out as everyone headed down to the quidditch field. When she was done, Lily got up and made her way to the library. She enjoyed staying in the school during the quidditch games. Practically everyone was down at the quidditch pitch, leaving her to do what she pleased. It's not that she wanted to do anything devious; she just liked the peace and quiet. And she loved the fact that James Potter was not around to annoy her. Once she got to the library, she nodded at Madam Pince and walked to the table she liked to sit at when she had to work on her schoolwork. It was a table at the far end of the library, hidden by rows and rows of bookcases. But apparently, she wasn't the only one that liked that spot in the library because when she got there, she found Severus Snape sitting at the table. "Hi, Severus," Lily said, surprised. She figured he would have been down at the match.

"Hello," he said disdainfully, barely looking up at her.

She stood there for a moment, feeling sufficiently awkward. "Is it alright if I sit here?"

"There are plenty of empty tables," Snape said.

"I know," Lily said. "It's just… Madam Pince can't see this one. And I don't like doing work while she glares at me, it makes me uncomfortable and I can't focus."

Snape looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "I don't think –"

"No one is going to see us!" Lily said, frustrated and knowing that was the exact reason why he didn't want to her to sit with him. "Everyone is down at the quidditch match."

"Fine," Snape said, reluctantly.

Lily sat down and pulled her potions book out of her bag. She felt Snape staring at her and said, "What?"

"Why aren't you down at the match?" he asked, sounding almost curious. "I thought you'd be Potter's head cheerleader."

"Urgh," Lily said, making a face. "I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than watch him show off some more."

The corners of Snape's lips twitched, almost as if he was stopping himself from smiling. Lily rolled her eyes at this, knowing the only reason that made Snape happy was because it would hurt James. They both worked in silence for while until Snape spoke up again. "You're wrong."

"What?" Lily said, startled. She hadn't realized that Severus had been reading her essay.

"You can prevent the side effects in the Elixir to Induce Euphoria," he said, sounding slightly smug.

"How?" Lily asked.

"Just add a sprig of peppermint," Snape said.

Lily's eyes widened when she realized he was right. "You're right! That would counterbalance the nose-tweaking and singing!"

"Of course I'm right, Evans," he said.

"Do you mind if I put that in my essay?" she asked.

Snape was clearly taken aback by this. He didn't think she would ask his permission for something like that. "You don't need my permission. I'm not the person who came up with it, it's just fact."

"Well, yes but I never would have known unless you told me," Lily said.

"Fine," Snape muttered.

Lily bit her lip and then said softly, "It's Lily." Snape looked at her inquisitively and she explained, "My friends call me Lily."

Snape looked flustered at this. "We're not friends!"

"Fine," Lily said, smiling slightly. "We're not friends." She turned back to essay while Severus stared at her, dumbfounded. He didn't understand why Lily Evans, a pretty, popular Gryffindor, wanted to be friends with him, a Slytherin who didn't have many friends outside of his house. He had never been exactly nice to her, either. Of course, she had been sitting with him in Potions every class that year but he was certain it was only because she wanted to make Potter angry. Or at least, that was the reason why he had sat with her. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to be friends with her. He had a hard enough time getting the people in his house to accept him, being a halfblood and all, and surely being friendly with a Gryffindor, and a mudblood one at that, would ruin his reputation completely. He shook his head, deciding that he definitely would not allow himself to be friends with Lily, or at least not when anyone was around, and turned back to his Defense Against The Dark Arts homework.

They worked in silence for a while. Lily wasn't sure how much time had passed when she heard two people whispering about the match behind the bookshelves near their table. Snape shot up and said, "I'd better go." He walked out of the library quickly.

Lily rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys." She knew Snape didn't want to be seen with her, fearing what the rest of his house would think. She would have been insulted if it had been anyone other than him. She finished her essay shortly after that and walked to the Gryffindor tower, anxious about what she would find behind the portrait of the Fat Lady. She knew Emily would be inconsolable if they had lost. However, she didn't need to worry about that because as soon as the portrait swung open, she was greeted with the loud noise of a victory party.

"Lily!" Alice called from her spot on a couch near the portrait hole with Frank and Matthew Sullivan. "We won!"

Lily chuckled as she walked over to them. "I noticed."

"Whitehorn caught the snitch in just ten minutes!" Frank said excitedly, holding a large mug of butterbeer

"That's great," Lily said, looking around the common room. "What was the score?"

"200 to 10," Matthew smiled, holding a glass of what looked like firewhiskey. "The whole team was brilliant!"

"Where did all this alcohol come from?" Lily asked, frowning.

Matthew shrugged and said, "The marauders showed up with it about twenty minutes after the game."

"It figures," Lily said, shaking her head. She couldn't believe the Marauders, bringing alcohol into the common room and letting anyone drink it, even some curious first years, like the ones that she had spotted near the fireplace. If McGonagall had walked into the common room at that exact moment, they would all be in a lot of trouble, never mind the earful the prefects and Frank would get. "Where's Emily?" Lily asked, wanting to congratulate her friend.

Alice frowned at this and said, "I haven't seen her since…" She trailed off, again not wanting Matthew or Frank to know what was going on with Emily. She jerked her head towards a loveseat near the corner of the room where Sirius and Samantha were having a very public display of affection.

Lily frowned at this and scanned the common room until she spotted Emily sitting at a table near a window with James Potter. "I'll be back," Lily said to Alice before walking over to where Emily was and sitting down. "Hey, congratulations on the match," she said.

"Thanks," Emily muttered, before downing a shot of firewhiskey.

"Emily!" Lily said, scandalized. "You shouldn't be doing that!"

"I don't care what I should be doing," she said, slurring her words. She pushed the shot glass over to James and glared at him.

James reluctantly poured more firewhiskey into her glass and Lily's eyes widened. "What are you doing, Potter? Can't you see she's drank enough?"

"She already attacked me when I took the bottle from her!" James said, holding up his arm so Lily could see the large gash on it.

Lily rolled her eyes at this and turned back to Emily, who had just drank the glass. "Emily, getting drunk isn't going to make you feel any better."

"You're right," she said as she pushed the glass towards James again. "But it will make me feel numb."

"If you would just talk to him then –" Lily started to say but was interrupted.

"Then what, Lily? There's nothing I could say that would fix this!" Emily said. She paused to down another glass and said, "I've already fucked things up enough. He's made it plainly obvious that he doesn't give a damn."

"You know that's not true," James said softly.

Emily snorted at that. "Whatever, James," she sighed.

"No, Emily," James said, sounding frustrated. "You know how Sirius is and you know that he –"

James was cut off by Samantha Thompson, who had yelled, "What did you just call me?" She got up off Sirius, red in the face. Sirius, noticing that almost everyone in the common room was watching them, said something quietly to her and tried to grab her arm. She pulled her arm away and shouted, "What, are you thinking about her while you're with me?"

"Of course not!" Sirius yelled, getting angry.

"Then why would you say that?" Samantha shouted. Sirius muttered something to her again but it only seemed to make her angrier. "I don't care if you're too drunk to notice, that isn't my name!" With that, Samantha stormed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. Sirius sat back down in the loveseat and ran his hand through his hair, looking extremely frustrated.

Emily laughed bitterly and drank another shot of firewhiskey. "What a stupid prick," she muttered.

James rolled his eyes and said, "I wonder what happened."

"Who cares?" Emily said.

"You do," Lily and James said, almost in unison. James laughed softly and Lily tried not to smile.

Emily rolled her eyes at this and then turned slightly green. "I think I'm going to be sick." With that, she ran up the stairs to the dormitory, stumbling slightly on the stairs.

James sniggered at this but stopped at the glare Lily gave him. They sat in an awkward silence until James said, "They are both such idiots. If they would just talk to each other, then this would all get sorted out."

"I know," Lily sighed. "But they're too stubborn."

"Yeah," James said, frustrated. "There must be something we can do."

"We can't force them to talk to each other," Lily said. "It's something they have to do on their own."

"But we can't just sit here and watch them as they hurt each other," James said. They sat in a thoughtful silence for a minute before James said, "I'm going to go and see what happened with Sirius. You should probably go and make sure Emily hasn't been sick all over your dormitory."

Lily watched James leave, realizing that they had just had a civil conversation. She was shocked but got over it pretty fast. He had been right, she should go and make sure Emily was all right. She got up from the table and slowly made her way up the dormitory, dreading the amount of vomit she would undoubtedly find.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I obviously own nothing that appears in Harry Potter.

A/N: I'm really sorry about this, guys. I would have had this chapter up last week but I had an allergic reaction to this medicine I had started taking and things were not good for a little while. Haha, I won't go into details but we'll just say that I spent pretty much the last five days in bed, absolutely miserable and hopped up on benadryl. Thank you to Suddy (I think your threats might have worked! Hahah :) ), james-s2-lily, Andrien and SweetPsychotic2358 for the reviews! I really appreciated it. I really didn't like this chapter when I wrote it but I've gone back and changed some things and now I'm not too sure how I feel about it. So… please review!

**Chapter 14**

When Lily got to her dormitory, she was relieved to find that Emily had made it to the toilet. She leaned against the door to the bathroom and said, "Regretting that last shot yet?" Emily, who was kneeling in front of the toilet and trying to keep her hair out of harm's way, just groaned. "What were you thinking anyways?" Lily asked sternly. "Was feeling numb really worth all of this?"

"Go away," Emily said before vomiting again.

"No!" Lily said, walking into the bathroom. She sat down next to Emily and held her hair out of her face. "You need to hear me on this, Emily. I know you're hurting right now but the only thing that's going to make you feel better is talking to –"

"Okay, really Lily," Emily cut her off, sounding very annoyed, "I have my face in a toilet and I'm vomiting up my insides. Sirius Black is the absolute last thing I want to talk about right now."

"Fine," Lily said curtly. She really wanted to get up and leave Emily to deal with the mess she had created on her own but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She knew Emily would stay with her if their positions had been switched. Then again, Lily knew she wasn't stupid enough to get herself into a mess like this.

After half an hour, Emily was finally done. She sat back against the wall and muttered, "Thanks."

"It was no problem," Lily said, lying through her teeth.

"Yes it was," Emily said. "Look, I'm sorry. I know I haven't exactly been myself lately but…" she trailed off, suddenly not wanting to admit how horrible she had felt the last few days.

"That's the understatement of the year," Lily smirked. Emily smiled slightly at this. "We're all worried about you, you know," Lily said.

"Why? I'm fine," Emily muttered and Lily knew she wasn't being honest.

"No, you're not," Lily said. "You're downing entire bottles of firewhiskey to feel numb. I wouldn't call that fine."

Emily sighed and said, "It just sucks."

Lily waited for Emily to elaborate. When she didn't, Lily asked, "What does?"

Emily looked at Lily as if she couldn't believe that she had asked that. "You don't know? Really?" Emily said in disbelief.

"Well, I can't read your mind!" Lily said, frustrated.

Emily shook her head and stared at the floor. After a few minutes of silence, she said, "I just… I tried so hard to get over him, you know? And all he had to do was look at me and I turned into this pathetic, love-struck girl that couldn't even think before she acted. Whenever he's around me, I can't think properly." Her eyes started to water and she groaned in frustration. "And now look at me! I've turned into one of _those_ girls."

"What girls?" Lily asked, confused.

"You know, the girls that we always used to laugh at. The ones who cried for days after he dumped them," Emily sniffled, wiping away the tears that had started to fall. "I just wish things would go back to the way they used to be."

Lily bit her lip, not knowing what to say. She knew what Emily wanted to hear but she also knew that that was the exact opposite of what she needed to hear. "Emily," Lily said, moving so she was sitting next to her, "things aren't going to go back to the way things used to be. You have to accept that." Emily nodded at this, finally seeming to realize that. "I know I've said this a hundred times, but you need to talk to him."

Emily laughed bitterly and said, "He doesn't care."

"You don't actually believe that, do you? Emily, you were friends with him for five years! How can you even think that he wouldn't care if you guys just stopped talking to each other?" Lily said. "Even I can tell that this is bothering him."

Emily sighed and looked down at the tiled bathroom floor. She thought for a moment and then said, "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Lily said, feeling somewhat exasperated.

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "And you get on James for his arrogance."

Lily narrowed her eyes and said, "That is completely different, Sullivan."

"Sure it is," Emily said weakly. She laid back on the floor and said, "I'm not talking to him today, though. I still feel sort of drunk. And pukey."

"Right," Lily smiled, "I think that's my cue to leave." She got up and said, "But you should take a shower, you've got a bit of sick in your hair."

Emily groaned from the floor and gave Lily the finger. Lily laughed and exited the bathroom. She could hear crying coming from behind the drawn curtains of Samantha's bed and Lily hoped that Samantha hadn't heard anything that they had said in the bathroom. She was halfway out the door to the dormitory when she heard Samantha call out, "Lily?"

Lily turned around and saw that Samantha's head peeking out from her curtains. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were all wet. She immediately felt bad and walked over to where Samantha's bed. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.

"No," Samantha said, tears running down her face. "I have to ask you a question."

"Ok," Lily said. "Ask away."

"But I'm not sure if you'll answer honestly because it has to do with one of your friends. So I'm just going to ask it and I would really like it if you told me the truth," Samantha said, looking worried.

"I'll try to," Lily said, feeling very uneasy.

Samantha bit her lip and asked, "Is there something going on with Sirius and Emily?"

Lily tried not to react to this. "I don't think so," she said. Samantha looked like she didn't believe her and so Lily continued, "I don't know. You'd probably have to ask her."

"Oh," Samantha said, looking down. "Ok."

"Sorry," Lily said. She patted Samantha on the back as she cried. "Why did you want to know?" Lily asked after a few minutes.

"He called me Emily while we were…" Samantha trailed off, starting to cry harder. Lily's eyes widened at this but she didn't say anything. She continued to pat Samantha on the back until Samantha had stopped crying. Samantha wiped at her eyes and said, "Thanks, Lily."

"It was no problem, Samantha," Lily said, getting up.

At that moment, Emily walked out of the bathroom drying her wet hair with a towel. When she saw Samantha's puffy eyes, she walked over and said, "Samantha, are you alright?"

Samantha stood up and glared at Emily. Lily stood up too, hoping to stop whatever was bound to happen. "Has anything happened between you and Sirius?" Samantha asked, although she looked as if she didn't want to know.

Emily glanced nervously at Lily, not knowing what she should do. "What do you mean?" she asked, trying to sound confused.

"You know exactly what I mean," Samantha said.

Emily looked at Lily again and could tell by the look on her face that she thought Emily should tell the truth. "Nothing really happened," Emily said.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Samantha said, confused and angry.

"I kissed him, a couple of days ago. But it only happened once," Emily said. Samantha's face hardened at this and Emily felt awful. "Samantha, I'm so sorry. I feel so awful. It was a mistake."

Samantha responded to that by punching Emily in the nose. "I can't believe you!" she yelled. "You kiss my boyfriend and then just expect me to forgive you because you feel awful? You are such a bitch!" With that, Samantha turned and stormed out of the dormitory.

Lily turned to her friend and saw that her nose was starting to bleed. "Emily, your nose!" Lily said.

Emily wiped at her nose and then looked down at the blood on her fingers. "That went well," she laughed bitterly.

"Come on," Lily said. "Let's go see Madam Pomfrey."

"Why?" Emily asked. "I'm fine."

"It might be broken!" Lily said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at her friend. It was just like Emily to act like she was fine when there was blood pouring from her nose.

Emily scoffed at this. "She's not –"

"Oh, come on!" Lily interrupted her. She grabbed Emily by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

-----

"Come on, Padfoot! Just tell me what happened," James said for what felt like the fiftieth time. Sirius had refused to tell James what had happened with him and Samantha, although James had a very good feeling that it had something to do with Emily.

"No," Sirius said, sitting back angrily in his seat. "I don't want to talk about it."

James threw his hands up in frustration and he leaned back in the armchair he was in. Finally, he grinned mischievously and said, "Look, you can either willingly tell me or I can give you a few more butterbeers and then ask you."

Sirius's face darkened at this. He knew that whenever he had drank enough, he was willing to tell anyone whatever they wanted to know. He glared at James and muttered, "I called her Emily."

James eyes widened at this. "Oh," he said awkwardly.

"Yeah," Sirius said darkly, crossing his arms over his chest.

James smirked. "Well, I don't blame you," he said sarcastically. "It's such a common mistake to make, seeing as how their names sound nothing alike." Sirius glared at him but didn't say anything. "And, I mean, they have so much in common," James continued. "I know I'm always confusing them."

"Shutup, James," Sirius muttered.

James laughed and said, "What's going on with you, anyways?"

"There's nothing going on with me," Sirius said.

James snorted. "You called your girlfriend by another girl's name. I wouldn't call that nothing."

"It's not like I haven't done it before," Sirius said, annoyed.

"But you never dated any of those girls for as long as you've dated Samantha," James pointed out. Sirius didn't say anything; he just looked down and glared at his hands. "And you never called any of those girls Emily."

Sirius scowled and said, "Did I just see you and Evans having a proper conversation without any yelling?"

"Yeah," James smiled, getting thrown off track by Sirius.

"What were you guys talking about?" Sirius asked, grinning. He hoped his plan to get James to completely forget about what they were talking about had worked. Usually bringing up Lily Evans did the trick, unless James was really determined. It wasn't that he didn't want James to know what was going on with him; it was just that he wasn't even sure about it. He had felt completely discombobulated ever since Emily had kissed him.

"Oh, we were just talking about Emily," James said. "And that is completely beside the point! You still haven't told me what is wrong with you."

"Yes, I did tell you," Sirius said. "There is nothing wrong with me!"

"Fine," James said, frustrated. He sat back in his chair and scowled.

They sat in a tense silence for a while. Then Sirius said, "It's just… I can't stop thinking about her and it's driving me crazy!"

"Samantha or Emily?" James asked, relieved that he was finally getting somewhere with Sirius.

"Who do you think?" Sirius said angrily. James didn't say anything, he knew that Sirius had meant Emily. After a few minutes, Sirius continued, "I mean, who does she think she is? She set me up with Samantha!" James didn't know what to say to that because he could see Sirius's point. "And what I really don't understand is why she even kissed me if she only wanted to be friends."

"She's confused," James said simply.

"She's not the only one," Sirius muttered.

"What's so confusing?" James asked, not understanding what Sirius had meant. He thought it was pretty simple, Emily had feelings for Sirius that weren't returned and now they both wanted to go back to being friends but it was insanely awkward. "If you'd just talk to her, then you could go back to being friends!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You don't get it."

"Obviously," James said, exasperated. "What, do you have feelings for her or something?"

"I don't know!" Sirius said, sounding very annoyed.

"But you can't!" James said, trying to make sense of it. "I mean, she's Emily. You can't do the things you normally do to girls with her, Sirius. She's not like that." Sirius glared at James and James knew that he wasn't being helpful in the least. He decided the best idea would be to shut up. He sat back and watched as Samantha stormed down the dormitory stairs and over to a couch in front of the fireplace, where Gwenog Jones was sitting. "Don't you think you should go talk to her?" he asked Sirius.

"No," Sirius said.

"Why not?" James asked, confused.

"She's too angry," Sirius said, grinning. "She might just kill me."

"I wouldn't blame her." James laughed and watched as Samantha and Gwenog talked to each other while glaring at Sirius. "I think they're talking about you," James said.

"Probably discussing the best methods of castration," Sirius muttered.

James snorted at this but didn't say anything. He noticed Lily dragging Emily down the stairs of the girls' dormitory and he jumped up. "I'll be right back, Padfoot." Sirius didn't respond to this. He saw the two girls too and noticed that Emily was holding her nose and had blood dripping from her hand. When James got over to the two girls, he said, "Merlin, Sullivan, what happened to you?"

"Samantha punched her," Lily said, trying to drag her friend across the room.

James laughed at this but tried to cover it with a cough at the looks they both gave him. "Why'd she do that?" He opened the portrait hole for them and then followed them out.

"I told her that I kissed Sirius," Emily said simply. She pulled her arm from Lily and said, "Just because I had a little bit to drink doesn't mean I can't walk by myself!"

Lily raised an eyebrow at this as Emily stumbled over her own two feet. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes!" Emily yelled angrily.

"Why did you tell her?" James asked curiously.

"I don't know," Emily muttered.

"Because," Lily said, sounding annoyed, "she deserved to know the truth!"

"Yeah, but you might have wanted to wait until you were a safe distance away," James smirked. They reached the Hospital Wing and Emily went inside, insisting that James and Lily stay outside. "Is she alright now?"

"She's drunk and might have a broken nose, of course she's not all right!" Lily said, rolling her eyes exasperatedly.

James gritted his teeth and tried not to say one of the many cheeky comebacks that were popping up in his head. "I meant about the whole… situation with Sirius," James said softly.

"I don't know," Lily said. "I think I've finally convinced her to talk with him but I'm not even sure if that will work."

"Why not?" James asked.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, you know how Emily is, she's not exactly very open and talkative about how she feels. She just seems so confused about everything. I don't think she even knows what she wants out of all this."

James sighed and said, "Sirius is the same way." Lily snorted and rolled her eyes at this but didn't say anything. "What?" James asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious what he wants?" Lily muttered.

James looked quite indignant at this. He opened his mouth to say something when Emily came out of the hospital wing, grinning. "All fixed," she announced to the both of them. "Can you believe that she actually broke my nose? I should go and congratulate her." Lily rolled her eyes and laughed at her friend.

"I'd stay away from her right now," James said before stalking off down the hall.

"What was that about?" Emily said as she made her way back to the common room with Lily.

Lily shrugged. "I guess I made him angry."

"Well that's different, him stalking off because of something you said," Emily laughed. They started walking down the hall and Emily said, "Hey, isn't that's like, the second time today you've had a nice, civil conversation with him? Well maybe, that one wouldn't count as exactly civil but…"

Lily raised her eyebrow at this and said, "So?"

"I'm just pointing it out," Emily said, trying not to sound too suspicious.

Lily narrowed her eyes at Emily. She knew she was up to something but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what it was. They walked in silence until Lily said, "I think there's something going on with him."

"Why?" Emily asked.

"He's been acting funny lately," Lily frowned. "I actually think he's been ignoring me! And when he does talk to me, he's overly nice."

"Really?" Emily grinned. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Lily said.

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "Lily, you're always complaining that he won't leave you alone and now he is!"

"He's up to something," Lily said, ignoring what Emily said. "I know it."

"You have to admit that it's nice though," Emily said. "Right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Lily said.

-----

"Where do you think we should go tomorrow night?" James asked the other marauders as they walked through the corridors of Hogwarts to Care of Magical Creatures. The full moon was the next night and they were trying to decide where they should go exploring next.

"I don't know," Sirius said, "but I'm sick of walking around the grounds all night. We've already seen everything there is."

"We could look around Hogsmeade," Peter suggested. "There has to be more than shops there."

"No!" Remus said, getting even paler than usual. "There are too many people around!"

"Nobody will be outside that late!" Sirius said.

"I don't know," James said thoughtfully. "The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head are usually open pretty late."

"Exactly," Remus said. "It's too much of a risk."

"What about the forbidden forest?" James suggested.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Peter asked nervously. "I heard there were acromantulas in there."

Sirius laughed. "Peter, nothing in the forest will bother us if we have a werewolf with us."

James sniggered while Remus looked around nervously. "Will you keep it down?" Remus hissed.

James smirked and said, "Don't worry, Moony. No one knows about your furry little problem."

Remus, still looking worried, blushed and said, "They will if you three keep talking so damn loudly about it!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "So the forest it is, then?" They turned the corner and a second year Slytherin named Bertram Aubrey ran into Sirius and dropped the books in his hand. "Watch where you're going!" Sirius said, scowling. The boy muttered something as he bent down to pick up his books and Sirius said, "What did you just say?"

"I think he called you a wanker," Peter smirked.

Sirius smiled mischievously and said, "Oh yeah?" He waved his wand and suddenly the boy had boils all over his face.

James was torn. He usually enjoyed hexing the little Slytherins with Sirius but he knew this was something he'd have to stop if he wanted Lily to like him. "Padfoot," James said, trying not to smirk. "You are acting like a wanker."

Sirius looked shocked. "You're going to defend the little prat?"

James just shook his head and waved his wand, muttering what he thought was the counter-curse. However, he was quite wrong because although the boils on Bertram's face disappeared, his head started to swell. "Oh shit," he muttered, staring in horror as Aubrey's head swelled to twice its normal size. Sirius was doubled over in laughter while Peter sniggered. "Moony, fix it!"

"I don't know how to!" Remus said, in shock. "Why'd you do it if you don't know the counter-curse?"

"I thought that was the counter-curse!" James said, in a panic. Peter laughed harder at this and Sirius had to lean against the wall, he was laughing so hard.

"How can you get those two mixed up? They sound completely different!" Remus said, trying very hard not to laugh.

Professor Flitwick appeared at the end of the hallway and ran to the second year's side. "Aubrey, we need to get you to the hospital wing!" Flitwick said. He took the boy by the arm and started to lead him up to the Hospital Wing.

"Aren't they going to get into trouble?" Bertram said indignantly. "This is an illegal hex!"

Sirius and Peter stopped laughing at once and James's mouth dropped. Flitwick looked confused and said, "Who?"

"Potter and Black!" Bertram said.

"Oh, you are going to regret that," Sirius said, advancing on Bertram.

"That's enough, Sirius," Flitwick said. "Right, Potter and Black, you will both get a detention. Now Bertram, we really need to –"

"But that's not fair!" James said.

"Yes it is," Flitwick said sternly. "It is basically his word against yours and frankly, his is much more reliable. Now come on, Aubrey, we really have to get you to the hospital wing." With that, Flitwick led Bertram down the hallway towards the Hospital Wing.

"What a load of bollocks!" Sirius said angrily. "I can't believe he ratted us out right in front of us!"

"We have to prank him," Peter said.

Sirius nodded and turned to James. "What do you think, Prongs? Should we start a pranking war tonight or wait until tomorrow?"

James laughed and said, "Tonight, definitely." He looked over Sirius's shoulder and muttered, "Oh shit."

"What?" Sirius said. He turned around and saw Emily standing a few feet away with her hands on her hips, looking murderous. "Oh," he smirked. "Looks like you're in for it."

She stormed up and James and punched him on the shoulder. "You fucking prat!" she said. "You're lucky Lily wasn't here to see that!"

"I was trying to help him!" James said.

"How is making his head swell up helping him?" Emily said angrily. She grabbed her book bag and started hitting him with it. "You are such an idiot! You were making so much progress and then you go and do something stupid like this!"

"It was Sirius's fault!" James said, trying to defend himself from her blows.

"Sure, blame me," Sirius laughed. He turned to Peter and Remus and said, "Come on, we're going to be late." They both look confused because they knew Sirius didn't really care about being late but followed him anyways. They were right, Sirius didn't really give a shit if he missed class altogether but as soon as he saw Emily, he felt like there were butterflies ten times their normal size doing back flips in his stomach and he didn't think he could stand being near her.

James had finally realized what she had said and his eyes went wide. "What do you mean, I was making so much progress?" Emily didn't answer him; she was too busy watching Sirius as he left. James grabbed her shoulder and started to shake it. "Emily! You can't just say something like that to me and then not bother to explain it!"

Emily pulled free of him and said, "Yes, you were making progress! The keyword there being _were_, seeing as how none of it's going to matter once Lily finds out about this!"

"What kind of progress?" James said. "Does that mean she doesn't hate me anymore?"

"No, she hated you less!" Emily said. "But that doesn't matter now!"

The warning bell rang and Emily sighed in frustration. She started walking the opposite way James was going down the hallway. "Emily, wait! Where are you going?" James said, running after her.

"To class!" Emily said, very exasperated.

"But what should I do now?" James said. "Can I ask her out now? Or should I start talking to her again? Or –"

"Do not do anything!" Emily said warningly. She had stopped outside the door to O.W.L. Charms and turned to face James. "The first thing we have to do is make sure Lily doesn't hear one word about what you did to Bertram Aubrey."

"I was trying to help him!" James protested.

"That doesn't matter!" Emily said as the bell for class rang. "Look, I'll talk to you about this later, alright?"

"When?" James said, but Emily had already entered the classroom. "Shit!" he muttered. He turned and ran down to the grounds, where the Care of Magical Creatures class was held. When he finally got there, he was at least five minutes late.

"You're late, Mr. Potter," Professor Kettleburn said. "That will be ten points from Gryffindor."

"Sorry, professor," James said as he walked to his spot next to Sirius.

"What happened?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Apparently, I'm making progress with Lily," James whispered.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Remus said.

James shrugged. "I guess so."

"So what are you going to do now?" Sirius asked, shocked.

"I don't know," James said. "She said we'd have to talk about that later."

"That doesn't sound good," Sirius said. They stood in silence, listening to Professor Kettleburn go on about yetis. Sirius noticed Peter staring longingly at a sixth year Hufflepuff named Rachel Graham. When they had to break up into groups, he elbowed James in the side and said, "Do you think we should help him out?"

James smirked and said, "Why not?" He grabbed Peter by the elbow and said, "Wormtail, why don't you go work with Rachel?"

Peter's eyes widened and muttered, "I think she already has someone to work with."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and said, "She's sitting by herself!"

"I don't think it's such a good idea," Peter said as he started to blush.

"Well, you're not working with us," Sirius said as he pushed him towards Rachel.

"What?" Peter said, shocked at what Sirius had said. He turned to James and said, "Come on, Prongs. I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, isn't she dating Vincent McDonald?"

James laughed and said, "How am I supposed to know that? Pete, you're never going to have a chance if you never talk to her. Now stop making excuses and go!"

"Unbelievable," Peter muttered before turning and walking timidly towards Rachel.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Hey guys! I am really sorry that it took me this long to get this chapter up but school has been a real bitch this semester. I had this beast of a research paper to write and I spent the last two months researching for it and writing it (I actually just finished it last night), plus I had midterms, work and a few feeble attempts at a social life. I worked on this whenever I could, but I didn't have a lot of free time so I am sorry again. I hope you guys can forgive me, lol :). So… I'm kind of rushing to get this up tonight for you guys so I apologize for any stupid spelling or grammatical errors. I actually kind of like this chapter and I hope you guys do too! Please review it and tell me what you think! Thank you to SweetPsychotic2358, Suddy, heather b (yes, Christmas will be coming up shortly :)), Andrien, Wraife, rikaaaaa, and ffacowgirl89 for your reviews!

**Chapter 15**

James was sitting in the Gryffindor common room later that night, trying to do his Charms homework. He was having trouble concentrating, however, because he didn't know if Lily had heard about Bertram Aubrey. He wanted to ask Emily but he wasn't sure if he should. She was sitting across the room with Lily, Madison and Alice and he knew that if Lily knew and he just walked over there, she would most likely kill him. After he had read the first sentence in his Charms book for what felt like the thousandth time, Remus sat down across from him and said, "What are you working on?"

"Trying to read for Charms," James said.

"Trying?" Remus said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," James smiled. "I can't seem to get past the first page."

"Is it that boring?" Remus said, wincing slightly.

James laughed. "I honestly wouldn't know. I'm just having a hard time concentrating."

"Oh," Remus laughed. He noticed Madison arguing with Lily across the room and said, "Did you find out what Emily was talking about yet?"

"No," James said. "And it's driving me a little bit crazy."

"A little bit?" Remus smirked.

James ignored that and said, "Where are Sirius and Peter?"

"Oh, they're strategizing for tomorrow in the dormitory," Remus said, his face darkening. The boys had decided to declare a full out pranking war on Bertram Aubrey. Sirius and Peter were deciding whether their first prank should be showering him with dung bombs as he walked up to breakfast or slipping some cockroach clusters covered in belching powder in his eggs.

James chuckled and said, "Oh come on, Moony, you can't honestly believe that Aubrey doesn't deserve it. He ratted on us right in front of us! I mean, that's just plain stupid."

"You and Sirius shouldn't have been hexing him in the first place," Remus said.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I was trying to help him?" James said, exasperated.

"You weren't much help," Remus said, chuckling.

James rolled his eyes at this. "Yes, I know."

"And pranking him all day tomorrow isn't going to help him much, either," Remus said.

"Well, I'm not trying to help him now," James smirked. "Now we're just going to show him that nobody likes rats, Wormtail being the only exception."

"I suppose I won't be able to talk you out of this?" Remus asked. "Even if I mention that Lily wouldn't like it?"

"No, you won't," James said.

Remus shook his head. He didn't understand how James could expect Lily to warm up to him if he kept doing things that he knew would piss her off. At that moment, Emily walked up to their table and said, "Hey guys."

"What's going on?" James asked immediately. "Did she find out?"

Remus laughed and said, "Right. I think I'm going to go and make sure those two aren't taking it too far." He got up and headed up the stairs to the dormitory.

"Taking what too far?" Emily asked curiously.

"Quit dodging my questions, Sullivan!" James said, standing up.

Emily rolled her eyes at his attempt to intimidate her. "Taking what too far?" she repeated.

"Our prank war," James said simply.

"Please tell me that you are not going to prank Bertram Aubrey again," Emily said.

James smirked at this and said, "And what if I am?"

Emily's eyes widened in anger. "I thought you were trying to help him!" she said, loudly.

James noticed that her outburst had gotten the attention of Lily, who appeared to be helping Alice with some Transfiguration homework now. "Will you keep your voice down?" he hissed.

"You know I can't control the volume of my voice when you're acting like a complete prat," Emily said angrily.

"How are we going to keep this from Lily if you're screaming about it?" James said, looking a little anxious.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him and said, "You know what, I'm hungry."

"What?" James said, confused.

"Let's talk about this down in the kitchens," Emily said pointedly.

"Oh," James said, finally understanding. "Right. Let me just get the cloak."

"Fine," Emily said. She sat down in one of the chairs and crossed her arms, looking very impatient.

James ran up to the boy's dormitory and started digging around in his trunk for his invisibility cloak. When he couldn't find it after a couple minutes, he turned to the three marauders, who were sitting on Peter's bed around a large sheet of parchment, and said, "Who has the cloak?"

Sirius got up and grabbed the cloak out from under his bed. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Kitchens," James said.

Peter jumped off his bed and said, "Can I come? I'm starving."

"Me too," Sirius said as his stomach growled for effect. "Planning pranks on an empty stomach just isn't right."

James snorted. "I guess so," he said. He was hoping that if Sirius came, Emily would clam up and not bitch him out too much.

He lead them down to the common room and over to where Emily was sitting. She groaned when she saw the two boys. "And how exactly are we all going to fit under there?" Emily said, eyeing the invisibility cloak.

"That's a good question," Sirius said, immediately regretting asking to go to the kitchens with them. "In fact, maybe I shouldn't come. Then you'd all fit under there comfortably."

Emily rolled her eyes and Peter smirked. James grabbed Sirius's sleeve and said, "I'm sure we'll manage."

The four of them exited the common room. "Where do you think you're going?" The Fat Lady called after them. "It's past curfew!"

"We're well aware of that," Emily said.

They turned the corner and put the invisibility cloak over them. It took about five minutes to get themselves situated in a way so that no part of them could be seen. "You know, this is a little bit uncomfortable," Peter said, smirking.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and said, "That's the understatement of the year. I have to admit, I'm a lot closer to Wormtail than I ever wanted to be."

Emily rolled her eyes and said menacingly, "Whoever has their hand on my ass better move it before I break it."

Peter sniggered and James sighed in frustration. "Will you three shut it? Filch is going to hear us!"

It took them almost fifteen minutes to get to the portrait of the bowl of fruit, narrowly avoiding Filch in the entrance hall. They took the invisibility cloak off, James tickled the pear and a door handle appeared. As soon as they got in the room, ten house elves gathered around them and asked them what they'd like. Once they had all asked for leftovers from dinner, they sat down at one of the long tables in an awkward silence. "So…" James said, trying to break the tension, "I'm making progress?"

"Yes," Emily said. "Haven't you noticed that she's actually been talking to you lately?"

"Well, yeah," James said.

Peter smirked and said, "He won't stop bringing it up!"

"So how haven't you noticed that you've been making progress?" Emily said.

"I don't know," James said. "She hasn't exactly been nice."

Emily laughed. "Well, she thinks you're up to something."

"Oh," James said, looking very confused. "And that's a good thing?"

"Well, I'm not sure," Emily said. "But at least she's talking to you, right?"

"I guess," James said as the house elves brought their food over to them. "So what do I do now?"

Emily bit her lip and said, "Well, you could start working on your reputation."

"What?" Sirius said, shocked. "But it took him years to get it!"

"Yeah," James said, looking as if he thought Emily had gone too far. "What's wrong with my reputation?"

"Oh nothing," Emily said sarcastically. "It's just that you're known as an arrogant, self-centered asshole that will hex you if you even look at him the wrong way."

"What's wrong with that?" James asked, not quite seeing the problem.

"Well, it's just, Lily would never date a guy like that," Emily said, starting to get frustrated with him. "She's more into guys that are responsible and nice, like... Remus, for example."

James choked on the piece of turkey he had just tried to swallow and said, "Moony? She likes Moony?"

"No! She's always said that she couldn't like him because he's a marauder, which is exactly my point!" Emily said. "Besides, she's not that stupid."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius said, his temper flaring up in defense of his friend.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Emily said, clearly taken back by Sirius's reaction. "It's just so obvious that he fancies Madison. I mean, he might as well a large, neon sign around his neck. She's not stupid enough to fall for someone who so clearly fancies one of her close friends."

"So what am I supposed to do?" James asked, not wanting to discuss Remus's feelings for Madison.

"Well, I know I've said this already," Emily said, starting to sound very stern, "but no more pranking! And that means you have to leave Bertram Aubrey alone! You're lucky Lily didn't hear anything about earlier."

"You told her?" Sirius said angrily while Peter glared accusingly at James. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about what they were planning to do to Aubrey.

James shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," he said. Sirius shook his head in disbelief. James turned to Emily and said, "What else?"

Emily thought for a moment and said, "You could take on some kind of responsibility."

"Like what?" James asked.

Emily shrugged. "Like tutoring first years or something."

Peter laughed so hard at this that he choked. "James tutoring first years? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."

Sirius chuckled while he slapped Peter on the back. "What would he tutor them in? Pranking?"

"Besides, McGonagall wouldn't let him anywhere near the first years," Peter said as he finally started to calm down.

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "Well, I don't know! Why don't you two think of something respectable that James could do?"

"He could give Aubrey what he deserves," Sirius said, smirking. "That's pretty damn respectable in my book."

"And honorable," Peter added.

"Well, it's a shame James isn't trying to date either of you," Emily muttered.

James made a face at this and Sirius laughed. "No, believe me, it's a good thing. James wouldn't have a shot in hell with me."

"You say that now, Padfoot, but everyone knows whose bed you'll be crawling into tonight," James laughed.

Sirius smirked at this and Emily rolled her eyes. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"At least this time it's not alcohol-induced," James said pointedly.

"Oh, shut up, Potter," Emily scowled. "Look, you can do whatever you want but you asked for my advice and I am telling you that pranking Aubrey is going to really set you back."

James frowned but didn't say anything. He didn't want to ruin any of the progress he had made with Lily but he wasn't exactly sure if he had actually made any. It was true that she was talking to him more but she hadn't been exactly friendly. He was starting to think that there was nothing he could do to make Lily like him. They sat in an awkward silence until Sirius turned to Peter and said, "We could always half-transfigure him into a rat."

Peter laughed. "That's perfect!" He turned to James and said, "What do you think, Prongs?"

Emily rolled her eyes at this. James frowned and said, "Maybe we should just leave him alone."

"What? You can't be serious!" Sirius said, surprised and a little angry at his friend.

"She's right," James said, feeling slightly guilty. He knew Sirius would be mad. "I'm sorry, Padfoot, but I don't want to fuck things up with Lily, especially if I've been making progress."

Sirius scowled and turned to Emily. "Nice going, Sullivan," he said. "You've turned James into a nancy!"

James scoffed at this. "I am not a –"

"Sod off, Black!" Emily said icily, interrupting James. "Just because James has _finally_ decided to grow up doesn't mean he's turned into a nancy! And it's not my fault he doesn't want to take any part in your stupid prank! You don't even bloody need him for it!"

"It is your fault!" Sirius said, the volume of his voice starting to rise. He didn't even know why he was yelling at Emily, it was James that had made him angry. "You shouldn't even be helping him, you know that he doesn't have a shot in hell with Evans!"

"He does have a shot with her!" Emily said, starting to feel quite indignant. She didn't understand why she had to defend helping James to Sirius. "I wouldn't be helping him if I didn't think he had one!"

"No, you wouldn't be helping him if he hadn't blackmailed you into it!" Sirius yelled.

Emily's face flushed at this and she looked down at her plate, not really having anything to say to that. After a couple minutes of a very tense silence, James cleared his throat and said, "I think we should get back upstairs." Peter looked very awkward as he nodded vigorously.

When the four of them got to the door of the kitchen, Emily turned to Sirius and said, "Can I talk to you?"

Sirius shrugged. "I guess," he said, not really in the mood to have another row with her.

James and Peter stood by the door, waiting for them. "Er… alone?" Emily said, eyeing the two of them and hoping James would get the hint.

James did and he said, "See you guys in the common room." He grabbed Peter by the arm and dragged him out in the hallway.

"Do you think that's a good idea, leaving them alone with that many sharp knives?" Peter asked, looking slightly nervous. "They might stab each other."

James shrugged. "I'm sure the house elves would be able to get between them before it got that far." He threw the invisibility cloak over them and they walked back up to the common room.

-----

Back in the kitchen, Sirius was leaning against the wall while Emily was feeling very awkward. She suddenly wished she hadn't asked to talk with Sirius. "Well?" Sirius said impatiently.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "About everything. I shouldn't have – " she bit her lip, stopping herself from bringing up the incident in the broom shed. "I've been so stupid lately."

Sirius smirked and said, "You've been a little more than stupid."

Emily rolled her eyes and smiled. "Don't make me regret this."

Sirius grinned, he was glad that most of the awkward tension between them was gone. "You shouldn't have what?" he asked curiously.

Emily blushed at this. "I shouldn't have been such a bitch to you or asked you to date Samantha." She stared resolutely at her feet and said, "Or kissed you. I really shouldn't have done that."

Sirius frowned. "Can I ask you something?" Emily nodded. "Why did you set me up with her?"

Emily shook her head. "It was stupid. I thought that doing that would help me…" she trailed off and Sirius raised an eyebrow at this. "I thought I wouldn't fancy you anymore if I saw you with Samantha," she muttered.

"Oh," Sirius said, feeling very awkward again.

"Yeah," Emily said. "We should probably head back now."

They left the kitchen and walked quietly up to Gryffindor tower, trying not to run into Filch. Unfortunately, they failed at this because halfway up to the common room, they could hear approaching footsteps and Filch complaining to Mrs. Norris about Peeves. "Shit!" Sirius muttered, his eyes scanning the hallway for somewhere to hide. He spotted a broom cupboard down the corridor and whispered, "Come on, Sullivan!"

Emily's eyes widened and she hesitated. "Are you sure that's such a great idea?" she asked, looking skeptical.

Sirius rolled his eyes, grabbed her arm and dragged her into the cupboard. Filch appeared at the end of the hallway just as Sirius closed the door. Sirius stood at the door and watched him through a crack in the doorway while Emily leaned against the far wall of the cupboard. After a few minutes, Emily sighed and said, "Is he gone yet?"

"Shhh," Sirius whispered. "He's talking to someone down by the Charms classroom."

"Great," Emily said sarcastically.

"What's your problem?" Sirius whispered as he turned around to face her. "You don't have to stay in here, you know, you could go out there and have a nice little chat with Filch and Mrs. Norris."

"And get detention with that nutter? I don't think so," Emily said. "It's just… we don't exactly have the best track record in enclosed spaces."

Sirius laughed and said, "I guess you're right." He turned around and checked to see if Filch was still in the hallway. "Did it work?" he asked quietly. Sirius had finally figured out why his insides had felt like lead after she kissed him. He had feelings for Emily, very strong ones. He had been trying to avoid them because he knew that if he acted on them, he couldn't treat her the way he normally treated the girls he dated. And Emily was right, if it didn't work out between them things would be a hundred times more awkward than they were right now. But now he was actually a little scared that she didn't feel the same anymore.

"What?" Emily said, confused.

"Did it work?" Sirius repeated. "The whole thing with Samantha, I mean."

Emily looked at Sirius as if she couldn't believe he asked that. "I kissed you in a broom shed and then completely freaked out and stopped talking to you. What do you think?"

"I guess not," Sirius smiled. "You do have to admit that it was a pretty dumb idea."

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, it definitely was. Although, it's not as stupid as some of the other things I've done so far this year."

"You really regret it, don't you?" Sirius whispered, staring determinedly at the crack in the doorway. It felt like there were butterflies doing back flips in his stomach. He couldn't believe how nervous he felt after he asked her that, especially since it was just Emily. Normally he really didn't care if the girls he dated regretted it later.

Emily thought for a minute and then sighed. "I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I just wish we could pretend it never happened and go back to the way things were."

"That's never going to happen," Sirius said, finally turning around to look at her. "Well, unless you can get a time turner and find a way to stop yourself without getting killed."

"I know," Emily said. She looked him in the eyes and suddenly felt very vulnerable. "I just… I've missed you. And I know it sounds weird because I see you everyday but, you're one of my closest friends and I haven't been able to talk to you without this weird awkwardness all year. So yes, I regret it and I wish I had never done it because I miss my friend."

"Me too," Sirius muttered.

They stood in an awkward silence for a moment. Emily was glad she had cleared the air with Sirius but now wished she was anywhere else. "Is Filch still –" Emily started to say but Sirius interrupted her by kissing her roughly. She felt deliriously happy as she kissed him back but soon her conscience started nagging at her, reminding her that this was Sirius, one of her best friends, and this definitely wasn't a good idea. After a minute, she pulled away and said, "Sirius, what are we doing?"

Sirius looked at her in confusion and said, "We're kissing in a broom cupboard."

"No, I know that," Emily said. "It's just… why? I mean, we just got past that weird awkwardness and now we're doing this? I don't want to screw up our friendship anymore than we already have."

Sirius groaned in frustration. "Why do you have to over-think this so much? Why can't you just let it happen?"

"Am I speaking Mermish?" Emily said, exasperated. "I told you, I don't want to ruin our friendship!"

"I don't want to be just your friend anymore, Emily!" Sirius said, his voice getting louder as he got even more frustrated. "I don't understand what you're so worried about. Nothing in our relationship is going to change!"

"Oh, nothing's going to change?" Emily said loudly. "I don't remember ever kissing you in a broom cupboard before so something must have changed!"

"Really? You don't remember the night in the broom shed a couple weeks ago?" Sirius was starting to get amused at how hard Emily was fighting him. He really didn't understand why she kept pushing him away. "Did you have your memory erased?"

"That was a mistake!" Emily said.

"No, it wasn't!" Sirius yelled. "Merlin, Sullivan! So we fancy each other, so what? I don't see what the problem is!" Emily didn't answer him. Instead, she decided to ignore her conscience and all of the bad feelings she had and she kissed him, hard.

-----

James was deep in thought as he walked back up to the common room with Peter. "McGonagall really wouldn't let me near the first years, right?" he whispered as they walked down a deserted hallway on the fifth floor.

"You're actually going to do it?" Peter asked, looking surprised.

"I don't know," James said, sighing. "McGonagall would probably think I was up to something."

"Well, you can't blame her after all the things you've done," Peter said.

James nodded. He knew Peter was right, McGonagall would have to be completely out of her mind to let him tutor the first years but he didn't know what else he could to do to prove to Lily that he had grown up. They walked in silence until James said, "Do you think Emily was right?"

"About what?" Peter said.

"Me making progress with Lily," James said.

"I don't know," Peter shrugged. "I haven't really noticed. But I guess if she says you have been then she must be right since she's so close with her."

"I don't know. I don't really think I have been. She still treats me like the mud on the bottom of her trainers." James sighed dejectedly and said, "Sometimes I think she's never going to see me as anything other than a, what was it she called me?"

"A bullying toerag?" Peter said.

"Yeah," James said. "I mean, it's never going to work and it's upsetting my friends. Why even bother?"

Peter didn't really know what to say. He had never seen James look this discouraged. He really wished Remus was there because he always knew the right thing to say. "Padfoot will get over it," Peter said. "And it'll work. Emily said she wouldn't have helped you if she didn't think you had a chance."

"No," James said sadly, "the only reason why she's helping me is because I blackmailed her into it."

"Yeah, but Sirius knows now and she's still helping," Peter said. "I know it'll work, Prongs, Evans just needs time to notice."

"I guess," James said.

"It's true," Peter said, smiling at his friend. He hoped he had been able to cheer his friend up.

Once they got into the common room, James saw that Lily and Alice were still working on homework at a table in the corner of the room. "I'll meet you up in the dormitory, Wormtail," James said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Peter asked, but James ignored him and walked over to the two girls. Peter shook his head and went up the stairs to the dormitory.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily asked as soon as James was at their table.

"I wanted to ask you a question," James said, sitting down next to Alice.

Lily narrowed her eyes and said, "No, I will not go out with you."

"Who said anything about that?" James said angrily, his temper flaring. Although he knew Lily needed time to realize that he was actually trying to be her friend, he was getting quite fed up with her stubbornness.

Lily looked surprised at his reaction. "Well, I just –" she started to say but was interrupted by James.

"You just what, assumed that that was what I came over here for? You know, for someone who's always getting on me for being conceited, you seem to be pretty full of yourself."

"Well, what did you want then?" Lily said. She tried not to show it but she was a little shocked by James's outburst.

"It was just…" James said, looking a little embarrassed now, "I was wondering how you got involved in tutoring the first years in Charms."

"Professor Flitwick asked me if I would last year," Lily said, confused. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just thinking of asking McGonagall if I could tutor the first years in Transfiguration," he muttered, slightly blushing now.

Lily snorted. "You? Tutoring first years? McGonagall wouldn't even let you in the same room as the first years."

"Yeah well, we'll see," James said, getting up.

Lily watched him as he walked up to the boys' dormitory. "He's up to something," she said to Alice.

Alice shrugged. "Maybe he's changing."

Lily laughed and said, "I think hell will freeze over before James Potter changes."

Alice shook her head. "You know, Lily, you can be so stubborn sometimes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily said defensively.

"He hasn't teased Snape, or any Slytherin for that matter, in a good month now! He wasn't hexed or jinxed any of the first years, he stopped pestering you and now he wants to help tutor the first years. I know you've noticed it," Alice said. "I just think you don't want to acknowledge the fact that James Potter is actually becoming a decent person."

"I don't know," Lily said. She turned back to her parchment but couldn't concentrate on her homework. Alice was right, she had noticed that James had stopped asking her out constantly and hexing the Slytherins and the first years. She had thought he had been up to something but maybe she was wrong. Maybe James actually was changing.


End file.
